Sometimes you just have a lot to say and to condense it steals the magnitude of what's being said.
I know that some people scoff at the Old Testament and want to hear on things from the New Testament as if the Old were done away, replaced by the new, which in truth is a conception that we old to with many day to day things. The old becomes obsolete. It's not truth always. Sometimes you need the old to build a platform to the new. Sometimes the older things are the more valuable they become. Sometimes a merger of the two both old and new are needed to reap the most benefits.
It's a shame that more reverence isn't given the Old Testament because that's the only scripture Jesus had when He walked the earth as man to use when He spoke from the scriptures.
Jesus didn't come shouting for all to do away with the Old Testament. He didn't say it was obsolete. He said this...
John {5:39} 'Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. {5:40} And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. {5:41} I receive not honour from men. {5:42} But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. {5:43} I am come in my
Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. {5:44} How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that [cometh] from God only? {5:45} Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is [one] that accuseth you, [even] Moses, in whom ye trust. {5:46} For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. {5:47} But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?'
Search the scriptures- what we know as the Old Testament.
For had you believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me.
But if you don't believe his writings, how shall you believe my words.
Do you see? This is Jesus speaking of the Old Testament. Clearly He is not saying that He has a New Testament that will replace the old stuffy Old Testament which He's making obsolete. He speaks of Moses who wrote of Him. Those who don't believe Moses, how can they believe in Him?
God's love is reveal in the Old and New Testaments.
We might scoff at the Old Testament and say much of it is irrelevant, done away with, replaced, made new, but Jesus never said that. Jesus shed light upon the teachings of the Old Testament, He brought it to life in a way it was meant to be brought to life, He came to fulfil the prophecies spoken of about Him, He came to right the twisted and perverted truths, to be the embodiment of the love God has for us. He showed perfect love for God His Father and perfect love for His fellow mankind.
I've been studying the word truth lately and it lead me to this lengthy bit in the Old Testament- I could just pick up the single verse with the word 'truth' in it but I feel compelled to bring all of this as a we study. When you read it please try to remember that Isaiah was a prophet, he too spoke of Jesus and you'll see it here.
Isaiah
{58:1} Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
** We need our sins revealed so that we may repent of them. As long as they are hidden from us we cannot forsake them.
Isaiah
{58:2} Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
**Imagine that? Seeking God daily, delighting to know His ways, wanting to know justice, delighting to approach God. How wonderful!
Isaiah
{58:3} Wherefore have we fasted, [say they,] and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
{58:4} Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as [ye do this] day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
{58:5} Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth
and ashes [under him?] wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
{58:6} [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
{58:7} [Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou
cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
**
Remember--
Luke
{3:10} And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
{3:11} He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
God would not have men fast and pat themselves on the back for doing so, calling it righteousness. God would rather we love one another with brotherly love- seeing to one another's needs before He would ask us to fast and call that duty to God over helping one another.
Isaiah
{58:8} Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
{58:9} Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I [am.] If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
{58:10} And [if] thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noonday:
{58:11} And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
{58:12} And [they that shall be] of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
**Think about it, when you've helped another doesn't that feed your own soul? Seriously, helping another person makes us feel good, being able to help. We grumble and gripe when asked to do something, when our help is needed in various ways that would interfere with our own plans, and yet helping others is so important. If only we could keep forever in our minds that helping others is truly loving as we want ourselves to be loved. We ask for help and when it is given lovingly we are pleased. We ask for help and when it's given begrudgingly it stirs up things inside us- resentment, ire. Loving one another is such a huge focus of the Bible. We reap so much benefit from helping others lovingly and being able to help is a reward in itself without getting a thing for helping.
Isaiah
{58:13} If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words:
{58:14} Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it.]
**Delight thyself in the Lord. Taking our eyes off ourselves and delighting in the Lord, a weekly reminder of our God, of our loving heavenly Father, delighting solely in Him is so special and yet some make it burdensome, others make it obsolete, is it no wonder the world seems to be so completely engulfed in sin?
Isaiah
{59:1} Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
{59:2} But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.
**Sin separates us from God. Our mediator, our healer of the breach is Jesus.
Isaiah
{59:3} For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
{59:4} None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth for TRUTH: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
**None call for justice, none plead for truth... how incredibly sad. Trusting in vanity, speaking lies, when the focus is on self, and the belief that you and you alone control things, there is little truth, little justice, and people fool themselves that their idea of truth and justice is good when it is vain and wrong, so wrong. Real justice, real truth, these call for looking away from ourselves and to God where it is found.
Isaiah
{59:5} They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. {59:6} Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works [are] works of iniquity, and the act of violence [is] in their hands.
{59:7} Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction [are] in their paths.
{59:8} The way of peace they know not; and [there is] no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
{59:9} Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness.
{59:10} We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men.]
{59:11} We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far off from us.
{59:12} For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;
{59:13} In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the
heart words of falsehood.
{59:14} And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for TRUTH is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
{59:15} Yea, TRUTH faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it,] and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.
{59:16} And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
**Truth is fallen, Truth fails, people don't want the truth, they want things soothing to their ears so that they may believe in the falseness that their sins are acceptable. Those that do depart from evil are like a small animal caught in the sights of huge, hungry lion, as the world looks upon them wanting them to die rather than live as a reminder to them of their own evil state. God sent salvation for all those who would turn from evil. Those who set themselves up as prey are given heavenly armor to protect them, maybe not here on earth for this life but the protection is heavenly and will hold true until Jesus comes and takes us to heaven with him.
Isaiah
{59:17} For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance [for] clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
**Remember-
Eph.{6:13} 'Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. {6:14} Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; {6:15} And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; {6:16} Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. {6:17} And take
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: {6:18} Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints'
There is so much more to this and I know it's going to be very lengthy, that it already is, so I'll break it into two parts.
Truth.
We don't want truth to fail us. We don't want truth to be fallen. We need to hold the truth up high and let it live within us everyday.
The truth of God.
The truth of His love and the beautiful truth of His salvation found in His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever! All mercy, all grace in Him.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment