Tag: son

  • The Holy Spirit IS that I AM

    The Holy Spirit IS that I AM

    The Holy Spirit IS.
    I am the Spirit of God.
    I am the LORD.


    The HOLY SPIRIT of Trinity

    Glory be to God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit

    Who IS God?

    It’s a question we all ask and a familiar question asked by many souls before us.

    Moses said to God,

    “If I go to the Israelites and tell them,

    The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’

    and they ask me, What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”


    JESUS asked His Apostles a rhetorically similar question:

    And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

    τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ

    And Peter answered and said, “The [Messiah] Christ of God.”


    The Apostle Matthew’s Gospel witnesses this same relational answer of his fellow Apostle Peter:

    God our Father and Lord

    Trinity = God the Father + God the Son Jesus Christ + God the Holy Spirit

    We get it humanly – the relationship of a son (or daughter) to a father (or to our mother).

    Human AND ever-existing SON

    Mortal men and women can relate to a Son of THE FATHER.

    We understand, in part, that JESUS was flesh and blood, body and brain a perfect human son of man (Mary, actually: ‘man‘ as in human like all of us).

    John, the Apostle who speaks so well relationally in the witness of his Gospel tells us:

    But these [signs, proofs or miracles] are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

    The Twelve, having loved their friend and Master whom they followed willingly, understood a relational link between JESUS and each of His disciples personally.

    When the Lord in so many ways showed His Disciples His ever-existing relationship to Almighty God our Father — HIS Father from before the beginning — they could not have been more awe struck that GOD stood in their human presence.

    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

    My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

    I and my Father are one.

    We get that - in a human sense of relationship.

    Jesus and Spirit

    Yet think from the witness of any of the Twelve of the impact of JESUS, the living Christ they follow, telling His disciples: “I and the Father are One.”

    Just like all faithful Jews, these disciples had recited the Sh'ma since their childhood:

    Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad

    שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃

    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:


    Even so, the Disciples had heard their Master instruct Nicodemus, a leader of the Sanhedrin:

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

    That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    John’s Gospel continues with Jesus’ further explanation of the Spirit:

    • Although mankind is flesh and blood, created from dust and water,
    • and Man is created in God’s image;
    • Man, LIKE GOD, is also spirit.

    What is Spirit?

    John begins his Gospel with Jesus (the Word) and the Spirit.

    John’s clear reference is the beginning written in the word of Moses:

    בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ׃

    וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם׃

    JESUS, THE WORD, WAS WITH GOD AND WAS GOD — ‘hovering over ‘a waste and emptiness,’ in the darkness over a face of the deep



    Spirit [spirit] – rûaḥ – רוּח

    • The KJV translates Strong’s H7307 in the following manner: Spirit or spirit (232x), wind (92x), breath (27x), (various additional)
    • Two additional uses in Genesis show both the Spirit of God and His quickening spirit in His creatures, including mankind:
      • And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; – Gen. 6:3a NKJV
      • And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. – Gen. 7:15,22 NKJV

    COMMENTARY


    Man cannot grasp the whirlwind or the unseen breath of God, yet JESUS, who IS One with the Father tells us:

    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”


    πνεῦμα – pneuma in the New Testament

    Spirit in the New Testament – basically has the same meaning AND is just as mysterious, illusive as the breath of angels. – RH

    spirit in a living soul
    • the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
      • the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
      • the soul
    How do you think of your own spirit? 

    “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

    Gospel of Matthew 5:3 LSB from the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ

    Consider a mysterious ethereal truth: observable, yet beyond measure of man's contemporary thought. 
    
    spirits apart from your own mortal soul
    • a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
      • a life giving spirit
      • a human soul that has left the body
      • a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
        • used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
        • the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

    spirit and soul alike, yet distinct

    Before proceeding to the more powerful and most mysterious Holy Spirit of God, 

    consider beyond flesh and blood, mind and spirit --
    that which is the same in Old and New Testaments, yet having subtle ungraspable distinction: spirit and soul.

    We hear it also in the heart of Isaiah, a Prophet of God:

    With my soul [nep̄eš] I have desired You in the night,
    Yes, by my spirit [rûaḥ] within me I will seek You early;
    For when Your judgments are in the earth,
    The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

    • soul – psychē – NT Greek
    • soul – nep̄eš – נֶפֶשׁ – OT Hebrew

    the HOLY Spirit

    Although related to spirit, we cannot examine the soul today as part of our brief topic of the Trinity and Holy Spirit.

    Spirit – rûaḥ or pneuma

    Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

    1. as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
    2. as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
    3. imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
    4. as endowing men with various gifts
    5. as energy of life
    6. as manifest in the Shekinah glory
    7. never referred to as a depersonalised force

    Gospel of Matthew 1:18 NKJV

    Simply the human beginning of the son of man (Mary, a virgin, that is; bearing a second adam in the line of God’s created ones).

    Certainly mysterious, controversial to this day to the psyches and spirits of mortal men and women who resist the Spirit of God.


    πνεῦμα – pneuma – spirit OR ghost


    As mysterious as Ghost or the Spirit may be to mankind, its root word [Strong’s G4154 – pneō] directs our thoughts

    • to breathe hard, i.e. breeze:—blow (of the wind)

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

    Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’

    The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

    The HOLINESS of God

    GOD IS HOLY text of Deuteronomy 6:13

    NO mention of Trinity is absent the key concept of HOLY in reference to the HOLY GHOST or the HOLY SPIRIT.

    We have examined the doctrines of Holiness previously:

    DOCTRINE: GOD IS HOLY

    I encourage you in the spirit to pray with ears to hear the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, who IS ONE with the Father and the Son our savior Jesus Christ.


    Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

    God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses.

    Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

    God LORD Father JESUS Son Holy Spirit

  • The Hour Is Come – Glory to the Son AND the Father

    The Hour Is Come – Glory to the Son AND the Father

    Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer of intercession begins simply and humbly.

    Even from the confines of a dark upper room in Zion which Judas has now left on the eve of Jerusalem’s great darkness, Jesus looks up to the light of a glory the Son once had – the glory of the LORD God our Father in heaven.

    Glorify your Son

    Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee…

    John 17:1 b KJV

    John 17:

    When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said,

    “Father, the time has come.

    … glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

    John 17:1b-2a NET

    Our eternal High Priest has much more to say in His prayer of high importance to sinners for whom He intercedes. These include eternal life and as previously mentioned who the Father has given to the Son.

    Yet today let’s focus in on why Jesus prays for the Father to glorify the Son – His reason for entering the Holy of Holies beyond the veil of our distanced understanding, on behalf of these eleven witnesses and more.

    What is GLORY?

    The Apostle John, one of the Eleven remaining had previously witnessed the glory of Jesus.

    Luke 9:

    The Transfiguration
    28 Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming…

    … when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him… a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

    35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

    δόξα – doxa

    From the base of δοκέω (G1380) – generally used meaning to ‘think.’

    The LORD God is a thinking All-powerful, Ever-existing Being!

    Think about it. As created and fragile beings our worship of the LORD God considers humbly our own humanity beneath His glory.

    We who can think should glorify the LORD above all, but often we will not.

    • δόξα dóxa, dox’-ah; glory (as very apparent),
      • in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective):—dignity,
      • glory(-ious),
      • honour,
      • praise,
      • worship.

    These humble acknowledgements so rare in men of flesh, yet plainly evident in all creation, reflect the glory of God. Therefore a soul who thinks about the LORD our Creator and glorifies Him is a worshiper, flesh and spirit looking up and bowing down to our Lord and God.

    Jesus prays to the Father as a Son of Man.

    Having been sent by the Father to the world He has completed the work for which He was sent by the Father. The hour now approaches for Him to return to His former glory.

    His former GLORY with the Father

    Never forget, beloved Christian disciple of Jesus, that He and the Father are One.

    Prior to creation and in the early history of God’s chosen, Jesus had the same former glory. You have read of it. Yet so often we remain blind to the LORD’S glory. How rare the time men bow before it.

    The GLORY of the LORD is perhaps as foreign to 21st c. christians as hebrew.

    וַיִּשְׁכֹּ֤ן כְּבֹוד־יְהוָה֙ עַל־הַ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַיְכַסֵּ֥הוּ הֶעָנָ֖ן שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בַּיֹּ֥ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י מִתֹּ֥וךְ הֶעָנָֽן׃

    וּמַרְאֵה֙ כְּבֹ֣וד יְהוָ֔ה כְּאֵ֥שׁ אֹכֶ֖לֶת בְּרֹ֣אשׁ הָהָ֑ר לְעֵינֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

    Exodus 24:16-17 WLC [click for translations]

    כָּבוֹד

    • כָּבוֹד kâbôwd, kaw-bode’; rarely כָּבֹד kâbôd; from H3513; properly, weight, but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness:—glorious(-ly), glory, honour(-able).

    Exodus 24:

    15 Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

    16 The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

    17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.

    18 Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

    the GLORY of a consuming FIRE

    Moses later confirms in Deuteronomy [ דברים 4 ]:

    “You said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives.

    This is the former glory the Messiah Jesus knew with the Father!

    Later the prophet Isaiah would write:

    Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?”

    Isaiah 33:14

    Jesus knew a former glory with the Father, a fearful and awesome consuming fire which refines and humbles men made of dust and ashes.

    The writer of Hebrews, restating Moses warning of keeping the covenant, reminds of this glory:

    Hebrews 12:

    18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”

    21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”

    Do you fear the LIVING GOD? And do you, O man, humbly bow down to the GLORY of the LORD?

    What is the chief end of man?

    Any teaching of faith must begin from the glory of God and consequent worship of God by man, for we are nothing more than a created being glorifying our Creator.

    We have glanced at a Hebrew origin, then New Covenant Greek.

    Moving beyond millenia of teaching from ancient latin we receive an English version of this elemental Christian teaching since the 1640’s during the Reformation.

    The Westminster Catechism begins with God’s glory.

    “Man’s chief end if to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

    Another foundational Protestant teaching, The Heidelberg Catechism, begins by asking, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”

    Perhaps the Disciples had wondered this often while following their Lord and Master Jesus for three years.

    What is about to take place on the Cross will fully bring light to Jesus’ prayer to the Father asking Him to bring the Son His former glory along with the Father.

    Jesus’ prayer for glory

    4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed…

    10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them…

    (John no doubt realizes that Jesus includes the Eleven here, but our Lord’s prayer of intercession goes much further than praying just for the Disciples in the room.)

    22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

    (Much to think about here even beyond the glory of the Lord.)

    24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

    High Priest of the New Covenant

    Jesus intercedes as High Priest on our behalf — between the Father and all sinners given to Him

    From here the Son our High Priest will move deeper into the unseen Holy of Holies where Jesus will present Himself as a living and acceptable Perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

    To be continued...
    
    
  • Are we children of Ephraim? – Psalm 78

    Are we children of Ephraim? – Psalm 78

    A child of blessing

    Ephraim was the second child of Zaphnath-Paaneah and Asenath. His father’s high position second only to Pharaoh gave Ephraim every advantage as he was brought up with all the riches of the palace.

    You may recognize him as brother of Manasseh and both brothers known as sons of Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob).

    He was much like the church we know in the US now. These sons and their families grew up with practically everything a man could desire. But one change in leadership would relegate them to lesser roles before they lost faith in the wilderness.

    Even though they had followed the Lord when Moses returned to save Israel from slavery, during forty years in the wilderness each year of yearning for former days turned their hearts from the Lord.

    Think about their roles as followers of God in the way Asaph contemplates years later. Think also closer to home, considering your own push-back from faithfulness from the Lord who would save you.

    Psalm 78

     God’s Kindness to Rebellious Israel
     A Contemplation of Asaph.

    9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
    Turned back in the day of battle.
    10 They did not keep the covenant of God;
    They refused to walk in His law,
    11 And forgot His works
    And His wonders that He had shown them.

    How like US

    Forget for a moment your own heritage.

    Perhaps your forefathers came to a land of promise or a home of the free. They may have bought passage to new hope in a land of milk and honey, a hopeful homeland of riches.

    Or perhaps they fled in huddled masses from persecution, slavery and imminent death. Oh, the hope of our poor and tired aliens embarking on a pilgrimage of promise.

    Who will you trust if not the Lord?

    Of Ephraim’s blessing

    Note centrality of Ephraim & Manasseh, Joseph’s sons to the promised land and a divided people of the LORD

    12 Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers,
    In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

    Do you, even in your days of difficulty, remember what the Lord has done for you and your fathers in days past, how the Lord has saved you?

    13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through;
    And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
    14 In the daytime also He led them with the cloud,
    And all the night with a light of fire.
    15 He split the rocks in the wilderness,
    And gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
    16 He also brought streams out of the rock,
    And caused waters to run down like rivers.

    Here is Asaph’s embrace of the Lord’s blessing many years prior to his own life in the Kingdom of David.

    How like the blessings thousands of years later of the ‘new world,’ a new land to conquer and colonize. Ephraim was one blessed by the Lord, but the promise of the Lord was long forgotten.

    Sin and Rebellion

    Egypt or England will call it rebellion, or course. But your journey of hope from oppression must remain in the hand of the Lord.

    We know in your heart that our forefathers were not without sin. The cause of our exodus from a former existence was not so righteous as our national celebrations would have us believe.

    Though Asaph laments of his founding fathers, we could well apply their rebellion to our own hearts.

    But they sinned even more against Him
    By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

    Psalm 78:17 NKJV

    18 And they tested God in their heart
    By asking for the food of their fancy.
    19 Yes, they spoke against God:
    They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
    20 Behold, He struck the rock,
    So that the waters gushed out,
    And the streams overflowed.
    Can He give bread also?
    Can He provide meat for His people?”

    The PERSON of GOD

    If God IS a Person, then how does He feel about your sin?

    How does God the Father react to the sin of His child?

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Psalm 78

    21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was furious;

    So a fire was kindled against Jacob,
    And anger also came up against Israel,
    22 Because they did not believe in God,
    And did not trust in His salvation.

    I’ll own it – I’m a rebel like Ephraim. Lord forgive me.

    And remember this, along with His many blessings to our forefathers, your own faithful or rebellious children, and what the Lord does for you.

    23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above,
    And opened the doors of heaven,
    24 Had rained down manna on them to eat,
    And given them of the bread of heaven.
    25 Men ate angels’ food;
    He sent them food to the full.

    Do you remember the miracles of the Lord’s blessings?

    Here we are so blessed more than most, yet craving the past and coveting the riches of others. Are we not like Joseph’s sons – Ephraim, the most blessed, whose rebellion failed to trust in the Lord?

    The Father’s wrath

    29 So they ate and were well filled,
    For He gave them their own desire.
    30 They were not deprived of their craving;

    But while their food was still in their mouths,
    31 The wrath of God came against them,
    And slew the stoutest of them,
    And struck down the choice men of Israel.

    How like the children of Ephraim we are!

    We plea to the Lord our God, ‘Father, give us this one thing we must have.’ Then, we think, because our Father has blessed us we will tell him of our next desire for blessing.

    32 In spite of this they still sinned,
    And did not believe in His wondrous works.

    33 Therefore their days He consumed in futility,
    And their years in fear.

    34 When He slew them, then they sought Him;
    And they returned and sought earnestly for God.

    Have you taught your children?

    SPOILED CHILDREN
    A meditation of J.C. Ryle 4 min. 23 sec.
    John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield England, 10 May 1816, appointed first Bishop of Liverpool. "His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’ - source

    Have you told your children of blessing that God our Father, the Lord, must be their Lord or they will suffer His wrath?

    Do you fear death and judgment (or even judgment, then death)?

    In fear have you promised God one thing, then in your comfort forgotten your Father?

    Psalm 78: (cont.)

    35 Then they remembered that God was their rock,
    And the Most High God their Redeemer.

    36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,
    And they lied to Him with their tongue;
    37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
    Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

    A Father’s love

    Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out:
    “The LORD, the LORD God,
    is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger,
    abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
    7 maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations,
    forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.

    Yet He will by no means excuse the guilty;
    He will visit the iniquity of the fathers
    on their children and grandchildren
    to the third and fourth generations.”

    Do you, forgetful unfaithful claimant of the Lord, remember your repentance?

    Have you returned to the way of your sin, though your fathers repented and told you the faithfulness of the Lord?

    The Father’s compassion

    וְ֭לִבָּם לֹא־נָכֹ֣ון עִמֹּ֑ו וְלֹ֥א נֶ֝אֶמְנ֗וּ בִּבְרִיתֹֽו׃

    Psalm 78:37 WLC

    But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

    For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

    Psalm 78: (continued)

    52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
    he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
    53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
    but the sea engulfed their enemies.
    54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
    to the hill country his right hand had taken.
    55 He drove out nations before them
    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

    Testing the Lord

    56 But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
    57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
    58 They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

    Does any sin of ours deserve the wrath of God our Father more than our worship of idol after lifeless idol, while we fail to remember our Father and Shepherd?

    Consequence of the Sin of Ephraim

    When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

    So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men..

    Psalm 78:59-60 KJV

    The Very Presence of God left the Tabernacle of worship for Israel, because of their rebellion.

    Psalm 78: (CSB)

    67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
    And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
    68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion which He loved.
    69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
    Like the earth which He has founded forever.

    God then chose Judah

    70 He also chose David His servant
    And took him from the sheepfolds…

    … He brought him
    To shepherd Jacob His people,
    And Israel His inheritance.
    72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
    And guided them with his skillful hands.

    • Are we children of Ephraim?
    • Children of Moses or of David?

    WHO HAS THE LORD CHOSEN?

    Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: yes Israel was chosen and blessed.

    Joseph, who came to be known in Egypt as Zaphnath-Paaneah, was blessed over his eleven brothers who finally bowed down to him.

    Then the LORD through a final blessing by Joseph’s father Israel blessed his sons, Manasseh the eldest, but giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.

    Yet through disobedience of the sons of Ephraim Israel’s blessing fell upon Judah.

    God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness – Psalm 78

    And after this all of Israel and its ten tribes were given over to their enemies Judah remained.

    But in time by their own wickedness, refusal to hear the Lord’s Prophets and turning against the Lord their God, the LORD also gave Judah over to its enemies.

    A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Prayer for Help – Psalm 79

    Another Psalm of Asaph – a short reading of 13 verses

    Then the Lord brought back a remnant to Judah. They again discovered the Law of Moses in the Temple the Lord had abandoned.

    Yet again after a short time they again turned against the Lord their God. And for a time no word of the Lord was heard in all Israel. Again as Israel, Judah failed to listen to the Lord’s Prophets.

    “Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’

    “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the LORD of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.”

    Malachi 1:5-6a CSB

    1:6 בֵּן יְכַבֵּד אָב וְעֶבֶד אֲדֹנָיו וְאִם־אָב אָנִי אַיֵּה כְבֹודִי וְאִם־אֲדֹונִים אָנִי אַיֵּה מֹורָאִי אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאֹות לָכֶם הַכֹּֽהֲנִים בֹּוזֵי שְׁמִי וַאֲמַרְתֶּם בַּמֶּה בָזִינוּ אֶת־שְׁמֶֽךָ׃

    Masoretic text of Malachi 1:6

    The Son before Abraham

    The Good News of the Son – John 3:

    “For God loved the world in this way:

    He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

    The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

    Do you, sons and daughters of blessing, sons and daughters of great blessings through the Lord our God, believe in the Son of the Father, the Messiah Jesus, the Son of Man and only Son of God in whom you have eternal life rather than God’s wrath, as we well deserve?

    What must you do?

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