Mike
Scriptures: Genesis 3 Malachi 4 Leviticus 23
From the early chapters of Genesis we learn that there that there was going to be enmity (war) between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan. This enmity would continue right down to Messiah and beyond, he was going to have his head bruised on the way, but would never stop.
Abraham had believed and trusted in the “seed” in the coming Christ.
Abraham saw that the day was to dawn when the Lord Jesus would come to redeem His people. He grasped, that one day, the promises that in his ‘seed’ all the nations of the earth would be blessed and would be fulfilled in one Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
The child of promise was born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, yet Abraham was tempted by God and told to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God. Abraham rose early, went on a three day of the journey, then saw the appointed place far off.
Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order, and bound his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar, and was about to kill him when the Angel of the Lord called to him and said ‘lay not your hand on him. I know that you fear God and have not withheld your Son your Only Son, Isaac’ so he was released.
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and there in the distance was a ram caught in the thicket. There was the sacrifice, the one who was to die in place of Isaac, a male lamb that was laid on the altar to provide the burnt offering. The place that God sent Abraham was a special place, the mountains of Moriah where David would purchase the threshing floor of Ornan and Solomon would start to build the city of Jerusalem.
Abraham saw that the day was to dawn when the Lord Jesus would come to redeem His people. He grasped, that one day, the promises that in his ‘seed’ all the nations of the earth would be blessed and would be fulfilled in one Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
He stood on Calvary and saw the “seed” of Isaac who would one day come here to the same place and be the Passover Lamb. Abraham rejoiced to see the day and he was glad.
I have been reading Malachi recently, nearly 2000 years since Abraham and it is clear that, at the end of the time of the prophets, communication was not happening. Israel was not listening to God, and thefinalchapter of Malachi is a last ditch stand to get through to the people, then there would be no communication for 400 years.
There is a touch of sadness about this last chapter of Malachi. His parting words show how God's people had degenerated, how they had rejected God, they did not want Him to rule over them, walking after their own ways. Malachi is revealing their spiritual state denouncing their sins and warning them of judgment to come.
Even in the final stages God does not leave them without hope. He tells them that for those that fear, stand in awe of, His Name, the Sun of Righteousness will arise bringing healing in His wings. This title marks one great purpose ofChrist’sadvent, considering the dark state that the human race was when Rome ruled the then known world.
After His trial, Jesus appeared from the judgement hall, Israeldidn’t see Him as the ram caught in the thorn bush, depicted by the crown of thorns on his head. They didn’t see the wood on his back that was carried to Calvary as a Roman cross for Him to be sacrificed on the spot where Abraham once sacrificed Isaac.
What incredible foreknowledge of the Father that would allow the Lamb that was caught in the thicket to pay the Mohar, the Bride price for our sins, and shed His blood at Golgotha for you and for me.
After the resurrection, what Malachi had warned about was borne out on the road to Emmaus. Jesus approachedtwodisciples and began walking with them, but “their eyes were kept from recognising Him.” He asked them what they were debating as they walked along.
Cleopas asked “Don’t you know all the things that have occurred?” Jesus answered, “What things?” They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who became a prophet, powerful in work and word before God and all the people; and how our chief priests and rulers handed Him over to the sentence of death and crucified him. We were hoping He was the one destined to deliver Israel. Jesus answered them, “O fools and slow of heart to believe on all the things the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then Jesus gave them a history lesson, starting with Moses and all the Prophets as “he interpreted to them things pertaining to Himself in all the Scriptures.” This was not the end but just the beginning.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says that the resurrection of Jesus was the first fruit of the great harvest that His life had bought. When the spring crops began to grow, the first fruit of the wheat would be given to the LORD as a thankful offering.
This festival illustrates the resurrection; the body has been planted in the ground, and now a glorious new body rises from the ground. Despite the head of the serpent having been bruised, Jesus is our first fruit, and His resurrection demonstrates a new start, a whole harvest of people being raised that will spend eternity in the arms of the Saviour.
Prayer: Father God, open the eyes of our hearts that we may see what this precious Seed of Promise means to us all, through Christ our Lord. Amen
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