Month: September 2024

Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You,
glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exodus 15:11

The scene of the parting of the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film The Ten Commandments is one of the most famous and memorable special effects shots of classic cinematography. However, standing on the beach with the children of Israel 3,500 years ago would have been much more impressive.

The emotional swing from the terror of fleeing from a huge Egyptian army to the elation of seeing all one’s enemies totally destroyed would have been intense. Being eye witnesses of God’s awesome power invoked a sense of gratitude that was spontaneously released in song: “I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15:1). There must have been great joy, but also a little timidity in their voices while singing to the One who is Fearful in Praises.

If God’s triumph over Egypt was awe inspiring, Christ’s victory over sin, death, and hell at the cross was even more so. Satan and his demon army were defeated forever, and they never saw it coming. The awesomeness of this victory makes Christians of all centuries want to sing:

When He rolls up His sleeves
He ain’t just putting on the Ritz
(Our God is an awesome God)
There’s thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fists
(Our God is an awesome God)
And the Lord wasn’t joking when He kicked ’em out of Eden
It wasn’t for no reason that He shed His blood
His return is very close and so you better be believing that
Our God is …“Fearful in Praises”
                                     adapted from Rich Mullins (1955-1997)

 February 24 

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall
justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:11

The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is perhaps the clearest description of the Messiah found in the Old Testament scripture. Here, the Man of Sorrows is clearly portrayed as Rejected by men and as the Lamb led to slaughter. The prophecy says He made His grave with the wicked (the thieves crucified with Jesus) and with the rich at His death (Christ was buried in a wealthy man’s tomb). Finally, it is noted that God was well-pleased with the job done by His Anointed.

The detail that appears in this verse, but is not found anywhere else in the Bible, is that Christ was God’s Righteous Servant. Typical adjectives that describe a servant might be loyal, trustworthy, faithful, or hardworking. The term “righteous” doesn’t seem to be appropriate for domestic help and might appear more fitting for someone higher up on the career food chain than a mere servant.

The important point to remember with this title is that the Savior was God’s servant, not man’s. Righteousness is a divine quality and part of this servant’s job description. God’s Righteous Servant came to this world to justify many and bear their iniquities. For this to happen, the Son of God had to be holy, sinless, and blameless. Without doubt, He was Righteous.

A servant’s job is to do the will of his master. In this case, it meant being cursed, rejected, tortured, and killed. The skills required for the task involved blessing the tormentors, rejoicing in suffering, loving the unlovable, and dying in triumph. Anyone less than a Righteous Servant would have failed at the task.

 February 23 

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
Isaiah 11:1

What is a rod, anyway? A rod is a useful stick that comes in many sizes and styles:

-Shepherd’s rod – A 2-4 ft. stick used as a club to protect sheep from predators.	-In Psalm 23, the sheep took comfort in the Shepherd’s rod. Believers can rest in the Savior’s protection.
-Lightning rod -A metal pole on a tall building that diverts lightning harmlessly to the ground.	-The wrath of God that was meant for rebellious sinners fell on Christ, saving believers (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
-Curtain rod – Held up the Veil of the Temple in Jerusalem.	-The moment Christ died on the cross, an earthquake broke the pole that held  the Veil and ripped it from the top to the bottom.
-Axle rod – Keeps the wheels turning and the vehicle moving forward.	-Christ is the axle and Christians are the wheels. As long as He is in the center, the ride is smooth.
-Fishing rod – A long pole with a line for catching fish.	-When the Lord called His disciples, He made them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19).
-Leveling rod – A surveying instrument used to measure distances in elevation.	-The Lord Jesus raises up  repentant sinners from the dust of the earth to seat them with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).
–Rod of correction – A switch or “spanking stick”.	-Proverbs 13:24 says, “He who spares his rod hates his son.” The New Testament says, “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being such a versatile Rod!

 February 22 

He saw that there was no man, And wondered that
there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought
salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
Isaiah 59:16

Isaiah chapter 59 starts off sad and then ends with great promises for God’s people. The sins of the people had separated Judah from their God and no one was calling out for help. The Lord God saw that there was no justice and no one to act as an intercessor for them. That’s when God promised to do that Himself.

The prophesy began to fulfill itself during Christ’s earthly ministry, but His full role of Intercessor is happening now as the Savior pleads for His followers. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

If the Lord didn’t hold back when He suffered and died to save the human race, He will certainly do other things for us that don’t hurt (Romans 8:32). The Apostle Paul asks the question, “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).

What kinds of things does Jesus bring before the Father? Christ intercedes on an individual level for each believer, every time he/she falls short of the glory of God. God the Father talks with the Son about the believer’s secret sins, trust issues, lack of spiritual growth and the use or misuse of spiritual gifts. I’m not sure about everything they discuss, but consequences, discipline and how each saint can be better conformed to the Son must also be on the list.

If I were perfect, I wouldn’t need an Intercessor. But since I’m not, I’m grateful that the Lord Jesus is always there for me.

 February 21 

For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
Psalm 47:2

Scary! That’s what it felt like to grow up in the early 1960s. The Cold War was at its height; the media focused on nuclear annihilation, and Communism seemed to be an unstoppable force. Cuba exported revolution to every country in South America, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev vowed to take over the world.

That, of course, never happened. Sometime in the early 1990s, the Soviet Union quietly dried up and blew away. Today, there are whispers about the Illuminati clandestinely taking over the planet, and radical Islam would also like to take a stab at world domination. Just like emperors and despots of the past, there is no end of candidates who want to attain the status of king over all the Earth.

The book of Revelation does foresee that this New World Order is coming, but it won’t be the utopia that many people are hoping for. A terrible and cruel world leader that the Bible labels as “the Beast” will control the wealth and souls of the planet and witness the death of three-fourths of the human population in a seven-year period.

All opposition to the Beast will be crushed and world religions extinguished, because the Antichrist will become king over all the earth. The good news to this is that the downfall of this evil world leader is just as sure as his ascension to power. When all human resistance is gone, and hopelessness grows to record proportions, the Lord of Hosts will descend from heaven with a huge army of warrior angels to defeat forever the Beast.

The real New World Order will begin. King Jesus will reign in Jerusalem and all creation will acknowledge Him as King over All the Earth.

 February 20 

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, ”
That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper, And execute
judgment and righteousness in the earth.”
Jeremiah 23:5

Branches are supposed to produce fruit, but crabapples are a big disappointment for someone longing for a Red Delicious. However, horticulture has solved this problem with various grafting techniques. Hearty crabapple root stock is used to support various branches from commercial apple varieties that by themselves don’t flourish well in certain environments. The top and bottom of the tree have different DNA, but the quality of fruit is what people care about.

David was a man after God’s own heart who did His will (1 Samuel 13:14), so God promised that the Messiah would come through him. Yet, most of the descendants that came from the “root of David” missed the mark concerning holiness. Even David, who wrote beautiful psalms of praise to God, turned out to be a murderer, deceiver, and adulterer.

The anointed of the Lord had to be not only a descendant of David but also a Branch of Righteousness that would bring back holiness to the Davidic dynasty. Since Mary, the mother of Christ, was of David’s bloodline, connection with the root was established. Being conceived of the Holy Spirit without a human father, the Righteous branch was grafted into the character of the Savior. All the promises given both to the Jewish people and to the Christian church have certainly been fulfilled. The Lord Jesus is not only David’s kin; He is God’s Branch of Righteousness.

 February 19 

 

When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Mark 2:17*

Cancer, heart disease, and aging are as much a part of the human condition as are sin, suffering, and self-destruction. That certainly wasn’t God’s original plan for creation, but sin and sickness escalated through the years, causing the misery index to soar. Life expectancy dropped from over 900 years before the flood to somewhere between 30-40 years during the first century. It is no wonder that when the Sun of Righteousness finally arose over planet Earth that He had “healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). The Lord Jesus was moved with compassion and healed multitudes.

Christ was able to do things that modern medicine can’t come close to achieving. Lepers were instantly healed with a touch, and high fever disappeared at His command. Muscles that had wasted away through atrophy in the body of paralytics were immediately restored. Even the dead came back to life. Such healings were proof that Christ was the Son of God and had power over the consequences of sin.

Although not officially in scripture, for centuries, His people have referred to Him as the “Great Physician.” The Lord still heals through answered prayer, and it’s always exciting to see the modern medical profession hard-pressed to give an answer for an unexplained recovery of a terminal patient.

However, this sin-cursed world continues to be in rebellion against its Creator and previously unknown diseases seem to appear every year. Sickness and death are the direct result of the human sin nature, and the main objective of Christ is (and has always been) to bring sinners to repentance. His death on the cross enables each believer to have eternal life and dwell forever with Him, free from disease and disability. He is both the Christian’s Savior and Physician.

*also see Matthew 9:12; Luke 4:23, 5:31-32

 February 18 

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and has become higher than the heavens;
Hebrews 7:26

Astronomy as a science has greatly developed since the time the New Testament was written. Back then, nothing was known about galaxies, quasars, or black holes, so everything was based on what could be seen with the unaided eye.

First-century conventional wisdom divided all that is celestial into three levels. The first heaven included everything within the earth’s atmosphere. Clouds, mountain tops, and the realm of birds all fell within this level.

Beyond that was the second heaven. This included the sun, moon, and stars. Technically, it would have been the visible stars of the night sky, but the category would also include everything else that could be seen with a telescope.

Above the known universe, one could encounter the third heaven, which is the throne of God (2 Corinthians 12:2). Both the Apostles John and Paul were elevated to that level, either in a vision or teleportation (they weren’t really sure how they got there). In any case, they were overwhelmed by the reality of its existence.

The Lord Jesus Christ is Higher than the Heavens. The position of Christ is exalted, elevated, and superior to everything else in both the known and unknown universes, in outer space, and even the throne of God.

It’s hard, if not impossible, to go past the limits of human knowledge and imagination, yet that’s where believers are called to spend eternity. They – and we – will enter the third heaven and gaze upward at the Savior who is Higher than the Heavens.

 February 17 

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great
prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
Luke 7:16

When Jesus and His disciples came to the town of Nain, a funeral procession passed by. The dead man was the only son of a poor widow and the Lord had compassion on her. He touched the open coffin and said, “Young man, I say to you, arise” (Luke 7:12-14). Christ then presented him alive and well to his mother.

Impressive? I should say so. A miracle of this magnitude hadn’t occurred in Israel for almost 900 years, going back to the time that Elisha raised another young man from the dead. The crowd concluded that Jesus of Nazareth was no ordinary rabbi; He was a great prophet.

Clearly Christ was a prophet, because He said the boy would come back to life and it happened exactly as He said it would. The greatness of the miracle put him up with two of the greatest prophets of Israel, but the Savior was much more than that.

Old Testament prophets saw visions of things in the future that they neither recognized nor understood. Often, short-term prophecies were superimposed on other similar prophecies that would be hundreds of years in the future. It’s common to find descriptions of Christ’s first and second comings in the same passage. Chronological order seems to be lacking with most of the major prophets, so seeing things in light of the New Testament sorts out the context and makes it understandable.

The Lord Jesus’ prophecies are not like that. He who knows the beginning from the end has given clear and understandable explanations of heaven and hell that were incomplete in Old Testament scripture. Christ’s predictions of the end times are unmistakably fulfilling themselves in the present. The last book of the Bible calls itself the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Although symbols and types are used as in all prophecy, there is a clarity and order of progression unlike anything in the Old Testament.

Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were excellent men of God, but only Christ Jesus was the really Great Prophet.

 February 16 

For there is one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…
1 Timothy 2:5

One classic illustration of the gospel shows two cliffs with a wide canyon separating them. Man is on one side and God is on the other, with sin being the gulf between them. Since the distance is too far to jump, a bridge is needed to get from one side to the other. A bridge shaped like a cross is put in the middle, and the idea is that only Christ can bring a sinner to God.

Since the Savior is both God and Man, He is able to reconcile the sin problem with fallen Man and the Holy God. In studying the titles of Christ, I have seen dozens that emphasize His deity. People need to know this. Understanding that God Himself atoned for mankind’s sins is an essential truth of the gospel.

The humanity of Jesus is often taken for granted, and there aren’t a lot of details apart from the obvious. He had a body made of flesh, blood, and bone, was born in Bethlehem, and spent His childhood and early adulthood in the town of Nazareth. Christ was human, but He was also sinless, although sin is very much a human characteristic. That raises questions about the Man Christ Jesus.

Did Jesus cry as a baby? Did He ever get sick? Did He have a sense of humor? Did He ever work up a sweat? Did He have body odor? Was Christ ever bitten by mosquitoes? The answer to all of these questions is yes. The Lord Jesus experienced everything that’s involved in being human.

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The Man Christ Jesus knows what’s happening with us. He’s gone through it all Himself.

 February 15