TheologyNow

Much as been written (as rightfully so) about the faith of Abraham, but Isaac himself showed that he also had faith in the book of Genesis. Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah and he was the son of promise, as the Messiah would eventually be born from Issac's lineage.

Genesis 22:17-18
I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed My command."

Genesis 22 is typically used to detail Abraham's faith and obedience and it does indeed show that, but we must not forget about Issac's obedience in this chapter as well.

Genesis 22:1-14
22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he answered.
2 "Take your son," He said, "your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
3 So early in the morning Abraham got up, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we'll come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, "My father."
And he replied, "Here I am, my son."
Isaac said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8 Abraham answered, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." Then the two of them walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!"
He replied, "Here I am."
12 Then He said, "Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me." 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: "It will be provided on the Lord's mountain."

While we see here that Abraham trusted in God explicitly and believed that God would raise up Isaac we must not lose site of Isaac. Many scholars believe Isaac was in his late teens to early twenties during this passage. This is based on the context of the preceding chapters and the fact he's able to carry the wood that Abraham hoisted upon him. If that was the case, and I believe it so, we can assume Abraham was around 120 years old. Clearly Isaac was quite capable of stopping and overpowering Abraham if he really wanted too. Yet he allowed himself to be tied up, placed on the alter and seemingly let the knife be plunged into his chest.

Another example of Isaac's faith is in Chapter 25 of Genesis

Genesis 25:21-22
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. The Lord heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

And also chapter 26 is another example of Isaac obeying God

Genesis 26:1-6
26 There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham's time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; 3 stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, 5 because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions." 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.

While all of the attention is directed to Abraham, we would be remiss to note how Abraham's walk of faith inspired his son's obedience and walk of faith. Isaac believed his father that God would provide a sacrifice, and was obedient to the point of death, he also was shown as one who prayed. He was married at age 40 and 30 years had transpired but God had listened to his prayer and Rebekah conceived. Likewise when the Lord spoke to him, he obeyed, and instead of heading down to Egypt, he stayed in the land of Canaan.

He wasn't perfect and he also picked up his father's penchant of lying.He wasn't perfect and he also picked up his father's penchant of lying.

Genesis 26:7-8
7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say "my wife," thinking, "The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman."

Clearly this very act occurred to his father two times beforehand. It also illustrates that while both Abraham and Isaac were righteous, they were not perfect or sinless. It should server as motivation for modern day believers to trust in God and understand that we are a work in progress. We all have short comings but with faith in God we can deal with them.

To summarize, Abraham was faithful to God, and without hesitation about to sacrifice his one and only son. Yet Isaac was not some little child, but rather a young man quite capable of stopping this whole trial, but he didn't. We also see that Isaac demonstrated prayer and faith in the subsequent chapters. While it seems Isaac's life in the book of Genesis is a parenthetical hold over to get from Abraham to Jacob, there's no denying the fact he had faith and trusted in God.

Chapter 11 finishes up with the final trumpet blowing. Unlike the other trumpets and judgements that preceded the 7 thrumpet the actual judgment is not immediately foretold but rather we again see the 24 elders who are seated before God fall on their faces and praise God. Additionally we see the temple open up and the ark of the covenant is shown. This of course is the actual ark, not the early ark that was modeled after the heavenly model. Not much else can be written about this passage, other then what was written.

Revelation 10

10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like fiery pillars, 2 and he had a little scroll opened in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea, his left on the land, 3 and he cried out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders spoke with their voices. 4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. Then I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down!"

5 Then the angel that I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6 He swore an oath by the One who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: "There will no longer be an interval of time, 7 but in the days of the sound of the seventh angel, when he will blow his trumpet, then God's hidden plan will be completed, as He announced to His servants the prophets."

8 Now the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."

9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth."

10 Then I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings."

Here in revelation 10 we get another breather, and in fact the interlude continues in Chapter 11. While chapter 10 is relatively short, there's a lot of information packed into the verses. First we see a mighty angel descending from heaven. Many commentaries attribute this angel as Jesus because of the rainbow - sign of God's covenant to us, that he'll never flood the earth and enrobed in a cloud. The problem is that in prior chapters, John saw the risen Lord Jesus and stated just that. So when he says he saw an angel, it should not be confused with deity. I believe verses 1-3 illustrate a powerful angel who utters something that cannot be repeated (at least yet). There is a prophesy that God does not want to reveal at the moment, which is why a voice from heaven called down to John to seal what he had heard.

Verse 5 shows him standing in both the water and land, as a sign of his dominion over all creation and he swore an oath to the God in verse 6 which again is more evidence that this is not God but an angel. God swears by himself, where as the angels swear by the one who lives forever and ever.

Genesis 22:15-16
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, "By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son,

A strange request from the angel to eat the book, but it seems the consensus of this action from the commentaries is that the act of eating is ingesting the word of God so he will prophesy on it (as mentioned in verse 11). I'm not sure why it's sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach. The best explanation that I've heard is that we see that God is revealing his plan to us, which is sweet and we look forward to that, but then we realize that means judgment on the wicked and that is a painful action. The Lord does not want to see any perish, but we have free will and those who do reject his plan of salvation must face God and the consequences of their actions. Could this be the bitterness in John's stomach? I do not know and to be honest, I've really not heard of any explanation that fits all that well to this passage. I will have to wait till God reveals this passage to us in the course of time, or later in eternity.

Chapter 10 is a strange chapter detailing of a mighty angel descending from heaven, uttering a prophesy that at the moment is sealed up and then giving John a little scroll to consume so he can continue to prophesy.

Chapter 8 of Revelation brings back on track the judgments, the seventh seal is opened which reveals the 7 trumpet judgments. Chapter 8 only delves into the first four but those as seen below are incredibly devastating to the earth which in turn affects all of mankind.

Revelation 8:1-7
1 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand in the presence of God; seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel, with a gold incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up in the presence of God from the angel's hand. 5 The angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; there were thunders, rumblings, lightnings, and an earthquake. 6 And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

In preparing for the 7 trumpet judgments, God first pauses, perhaps to give the inhabitants an opportunity to repent, perhaps to display the gravity of the judgments or for reasons we don't know, either way there's a dramatic pause between the 7th seal and the first trumpet blast. In fact between the 7th seal and the trumpet blast we see a visual representation of our prayers before God, like an actual offering our prayers rise up to him in a sweet smelling smoke. The incense burner that held those prayers is then used to cast down, a thunder storm and earthquake. A signal no doubt to the angels to begin their duties.

The First Trumpet

Revelation 8:7
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled to the earth. So a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

The first judgment is hail and fire, this isn't the first time we see this type of judgment in Exodus:

Exodus 9:23-26
So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field. 26 The only place it didn't hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

God is raining down judgment and the result of this is that the forests, grass and farmland is burned up. Is unimaginable a 1/3 of the world's forests and grass is now burning.

The Second Trumpet

Revelation 8:8-9
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea. So a third of the sea became blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

While we take the Bible literally its difficult to discern what exactly is this, perhaps a meteor, perhaps a major volcano such as Krakatoa who's eruption in 1883 was heard 1,930 miles away in Perth Australia. What ever it is, its so large, that it destroys the a third of the sea creatures and a third of the world's navy.

The Third Trumpet

Revelation 8:10-11
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from heaven. It fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood. So, many of the people died from the waters, because they had been made bitter.

Here's another judgment that's less then clear, it could be taken  a meteor, or it could be a nuclear missile striking Europe. This would have the affect of devastating the land and water so much so that water would be radioactive and unable to be consumed. One would need only to look at recent history back in the USSR when Chernobyl melted down, and poisoned the land.

The Fourth Trumpet

Revelation 8:12-13
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day was without light, and the night as well.

13 I looked, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid-heaven, saying in a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!"

I think this judgment is directly related to first and maybe the second judgments, with a 1/3 of grasses and trees on fire and possible trumpet number 2 being a volcano, then there's a lot of ash and smoke being thrown up into the atmosphere. Take the affects of Krakatoa back in 1883, a great hazing affect occurred because of the ash that was ejected into the atmosphere which caused less sunlight to enter the planet. This in turn dropped the temperature by 1.3 Celsius. Maybe not a lot, but given that ecological affects of the global warming, the people warn us an increase of 2 degrees will have a devastating affect, given the ability of hindsight, we can verify that the temperature drop indeed produce wild weather for years.

The eighth chapter of revelation reveals little other then God's judgments upon an evil and wicked world. What we can glean from this chapter is that our prayers rise up to God like incense and that there was a definite and dramatic pause. Perhaps for the inhabitants to catch their breath, or ponder their sinful deeds and repent. We really don't know other then God so ordained it. The other information we can glean from this chapter is that planet is now under severe duress, a 1/3 of the grass and trees are burned up, a 1/3 of the fish are dead along with 1/3 of mans naval vessels are destroyed and finally a third less light during the day and night. I suppose this could be the chapter of thirds. The long term consequences to these judgments are frightening. less food, water, light and ability to catch/transport the food.  Living during the tribulation time during the first 6 seals was incredibly difficult, but it just got a lot harder with these judgements.

God does not take joy in judging people, quite the contrary he's using these to show that there's a worse consequence (hell) if people refuse to repent but so far there's only a remnant of humanity that repents during the tribulation.

Now that Easter is behind us, and I now have time to delve back into Revelation, I see that I finished up at chapter 6. Chapter 7 provides an interlude between the judgements of God on a wicked world. A couple things that are quite telling about Revelation 7

 

Revelation 7:1-8
7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel rise up from the east, who had the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were empowered to harm the earth and the sea: 3 "Don't harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the slaves of our God on their foreheads." 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed:

144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Judah,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 sealed from the tribe of Benjamin.

First thing we see is God stopping the wind, being in the Bible I take this to be a literal stoppage, just consider how odd that will be, especially given our technology to monitor the weather, all of a sudden the wind will stop ,no hurricanes, no thunderstorms, no gentle breezes in the summer. I believe this one of those pregnant pauses God interjects to prepare the way. The way for what? The sealing of the 144,000.

While some theologians now and in the past try to say that God is done with Israel that he has given up on them, that we (Christians) are now God's chosen people we see this passage quite the opposite, that God never gave up on Israel. How comforting that is, because if God abandoned Israel, he could do the same to us. Now we see that God's plan includes Israel regardless of their actions and that's inline with God's character. There's no dancing around this passage, we see the 12 tribes of Israel and you cannot say in some weird way that this is actually the Christian church. God has chosen 144,000 Israelites to be evangelists, to spread the Gospel, not to the gentiles but to their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters.

Another interesting item, is the omission of Dan, we have twelve tribes here but the inclusion of of the half-tribe of Manasseh. Perhaps the exclusion of Dan was the result of their constant falling into idolatry and causing the other tribes to fall into that sin as well. Also notice that the order of the tribes have been altered. Age is not the sorting factor which has always been the case during ancient times, that is the oldest goes first but ehre we see Judah first mostly because the Messiah came from that tribe.

The final portion of the interlude before the judgements is an image of heaven

Revelation 7:9-17
9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

Salvation belongs to our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!

11 All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:

Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength,
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

13 Then one of the elders asked me, "Who are these people robed in white, and where did they come from?"

14 I said to him, "Sir, you know."

Then he told me:

These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
They washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb.
15 For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary.
The One seated on the throne will shelter them:
16 no longer will they hunger; no longer will they thirst;
no longer will the sun strike them, or any heat.
17 Because the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them;
He will guide them to springs of living waters,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

We see here in Revelation 7:9-17 a snapshot of heaven, and the imagery that strikes me the most is the countless number of people. We've seen huge crowds before, such as Obama's inauguration, where a couple of million people were estimated to be there, but here the number is so large we cannot even estimate, its not countable (by man). While people have given large numbers of how many Christians are alive in the world (only God truly knows) we see these are the people who came out of the tribulation, this unnumerable crowd of people are only a subset of all who are in heaven.  Can you imagine people as far as the eye can see, offering up praises to the one true God!

It's a comforting image, because, lets face it right now Christians on earth are the minority and the world hates us, in so far that we have gone into the light and they prefer the dark.  So in the tribulation after the rapture, there will be even fewer people who claim Jesus as their savior and the people who reject him will be even more hostile to those people.

Revelation 7 gives a tiny respite, setting up more of the supporting information regarding God's plan for the end times and we also see God's faithfulness, because he has stood by his chosen people regardless of what they did.

Today is good Friday, the day some 2000 years ago the creator of everything died on a cross.

 

All I can say is THANK YOU Jesus for loving me so much that you cast aside your divinity and donned the robe of a human being. Your actions of bearing the punishment for my sinful and wicked ways humbles me and drives me to my knees. 

THANK YOU for loving me so much 
THANK YOU for your blood that cleanses me
THANK YOU for the relationship I now have with you because I have been cleansed by your blood.

THANK YOU

 

Today is Maunday Thursday, the day we celebate the Lord's last supper here on earth. A lot has been written about this event, and there's really nothing new or earth shattering I can put.  I do have some observations regarding this night.

Luke 22:14-23
14 When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, "I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." 17 Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

19 And He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me."

20 In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, "This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you. 21 But look, the hand of the one betraying Me is at the table with Me! 22 For the Son of Man will go away as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"

23 So they began to argue among themselves which of them it could be who was going to do this thing.

What can we glean from this passage? Well that Jesus was human and had emotions, fears and foreknowledge of what was about to take place.  Jesus desires fellowship with his friends, he spent the last three and half years teaching them, spending time with them, both good times  and bad.  In his final hours before facing betrayal, torture, and death, Jesus wanted a brief respite with his buddies.

Secondly is his statement of the bread and wine, and how it will be a new covenant, the old covenant of sacrificing animals to cover over sins was to be done away with and the new covenant of the Messiah's blood actually cleansing one's sins, not covering over is established.  Also another point is that the the bread and wine are symbols of the new covenant and were not transformed into his flesh and blood as some denominations think. 

Finally a minor point, that Jesus was having wine, and was going to have wine again, once he returns.  My point is that some folks believe that after you become a Christian alcohol cannot touch their lips.  Yes, drunkeness is forbidden but a glass of wine is acceptabe. 

While the Last Supper was establishing God's new covenant with man, and Jesus' time on earth was quickly drawing to a close, the still got caught up in the old argument of who was going to be the greatest in God's kingdom.

Luke 22:24-30
24 Then a dispute also arose among them about who should be considered the greatest. 25 But He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles dominate them, and those who have authority over them are called 'Benefactors.' 26 But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving. 27 For who is greater, the one at the table or the one serving? Isn't it the one at the table? But I am among you as the One who serves. 

Yet again, Jesus had to tell them, that they are not to be like the world, striving for greatness but rather loving one another, serving others.  Jesus points to himself again saying that the Messiah is serving and so they must also serve.  Putting actions behind his words, Jesus provides one more act of humility to show the disicples what he means.

John 13:12-20
12 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His robe, He reclined again and said to them, "Do you know what I have done for you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord. This is well said, for I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you.

16 "I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 I'm not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: The one who eats My bread has raised his heel against Me.

19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. 20 I assure you: The one who receives whomever I send receives Me, and the one who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."

Washing one's feet is done by a slave yet, God in the flesh strips down, and washes the disciples feet to show them, that pride and the persuit of greatness has no room in God's economy.  We are to love others and put them before our needs or wants.  That's a difficult statement in today's society that is so geared to the me first mentality.

The Last Supper, was Jesus last time where he could instuct his discples, fellowship with them and provide the last few lessons of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  What's amazing is his patience, he's fully aware what's facing him in a few hours but he spends time with his friends and disciples teaching them one last lesson and letting them know that God is establishing a new covenant.

Its Holy week and one of my favorite passages comes to mind as we approach Easter.