Category: prophecy

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Bible Reading Plan: Isaiah’s seven time hotter sun*

Posted on by elizabethprata
In the Tribulation, agriculture will wither under a scorching sun.

Dorothea Lange, Abandoned farm north of Dalhart, TX. 1938.

At the end of the end days, during the Tribulation where all men living on the earth will be judged in wrath, there will be three sets of successively worsening judgments (or four sets, if the Seven Thunders of Revelation 10:1-4 are judgments).

There will first be the 7 Seal Judgments of Revelation 6, they open the Tribulation. Then the wrath of God is demonstrated through 7 Trumpet Judgments of Revelation 8-9. These are terrible judgments, but by God’s grace, some repent through them. After that there are the 7 Bowl Judgments. Revelation 15 opens with the 7 Bowl Judgments.

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. (Revelation 15:1).

These are the most terrible of all. They are so bad that no one is even allowed in the heavenly throne room sanctuary until they are concluded.

And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, 8and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. (Revelation 16:7-8)

One of the Bowl judgments God pours on the people of the earth the plague of a hot sun. By this point in the Tribulation, no one is repenting. They know that God is sending His wrath onto the world, but they shake their fist at Him and refuse to repent. By this time, battle lines have been set in eternal stone. In Revelation 13 people either took the mark of the beast and thereby signaling their worship of satan, sealing their doom, (Revelation 14:9-10), or they refused the mark, thereby signaling their worship of the Lamb who lives forever, sealing most to their martyrdom.

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. (Revelation 16:8-9).

God makes the sun hotter, so hot that men will be on fire if they are exposed to it. God is powerful and controls the sun!

Let us look to a happier time, the Millennial Kingdom. God’s Prophets had much to say about this period in earth’s history, also. The Kingdom will be set up on earth after the Tribulation is over, and the Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints have been resurrected. Those who refused the mark of the beast and lived will populate this kingdom, too. Because they are mortal, they’ll re-populate the earth. It is at this time the resurrected Old Testament saints whom Jesus promised land and an earthly kingdom with Him (the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Messiah) on the throne, will have all their promises fulfilled. This is Israel’s gift.

In Isaiah 30:23-25 we read that during this time of the Millennium Kingdom,

And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

John MacArthur says of this time:

In the Messianic Kingdom of that future day, agriculture, cattle raising, food production, and water resources will prosper. The prophet predicted the redemption of nature. (cf. Rom 8:19-21)

In Isaiah 30:26 we read of further blessings:

Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

The light of the sun will be seven times hotter?

MacArthur again:

The benefits from the natural bodies of light will be much greater. Increase of the intensity of their light will work to people’s advantage, not to their detriment as in Revelation 16:8-9.

In the Millennial Kingdom, a gentle, bright sun seven times
warmer will flourish the earth’s crops

When we read that God is sovereign overall creation, He is sovereign. He created the sun. As the Potter, He can make it do what He wills. During the Tribulation, it will be a mechanism for judgment, scorching men, who curse it. In the Millennium, the sun will be a mechanism for prosperity, and men will bless their Creator for giving them plenteous sunshine, healthful, glowing, and beautiful.

We groan, and cannot wait for redemption of our mortal bodies into glorified vessels worthy of seeing our Holy God. The creation groans too. When the creation is redeemed, it will rejoice also.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:20-21).

This is how the creation will be set free. The sun will shine upon peaceable kingdom, over a flourishing agriculture, making men and crops thrive. Our Creator is majestic in power and sovereign over creation. He is to be worshiped, loved, praised. Our Jesus who was with God at the creation and who sustains all creation and without whom nothing was made that was made, is our hope. He is the hope of all creation. Our eternal Hope, who reigns forever.

—————————————-
Further Reading

 The Glorious Return of Jesus Christ, part 1

Devotion: Three reassuring Signs 

*This post first appeared on The End Time in June 2015

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Bible Reading Plan thoughts: Romans 11 and the full number

Posted on by elizabethprata

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25).

John MacArthur on that verse in the sermon Has God Cancelled His Promises to Israel? part 6

The fullness of the Gentiles, that is when the full number of Gentiles are redeemed, the fullness of the Gentiles will bring the salvation of Israel. Follow now; the fullness of Israel will bring the kingdom.  So you have the fullness of the Gentiles and then they’re raptured out, God redeems Israel and when the fullness of Israel is redeemed, the kingdom comes.  And so with great joy does Paul predict this tremendous event that will bring about what it says in verse 26, “And so all Israel shall be saved,” after the fullness of the Gentiles have entered in.

At a certain point in earth’s history to come, it is promised to us that Jesus will lift His church composed of Christians dead and alive, into heaven to be with Him. Then he will hurl His stored-up wrath upon earth to punish the unbelieving nation Israel, and the sinful Gentile world. Some people say there will be no rapture at all. Others say that it will happen at the end of or in the middle of the time of wrath (AKA the Tribulation, or Time of Jacob’s Trouble). Since the rapture is in the Bible, and since it is a single even that is promised to occur, it can’t happen both before the Tribulation and at the end. Therefore one of those positions is right and one of them is wrong.

Scripture supports this stance that the rapture will happen before Jesus begins the last days punishments. Paul taught this in his treatment of the subject in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 15:42-57, it’s in Revelation, as well as being taught implicitly throughout other books of the Bible.

The event is supposed to be a hope to believers, and an encouragement, said Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:18. When you look around the dark world with its sin and evil, take hope in the knowledge that Jesus has a plan. His plan includes filling a quota for His Church (Romans 11:25). When that occurs, He will remove His Bride from the wrath, because we are not appointed to it. (Revelation 3:10). We will appear before His Bema seat to receive rewards for our service to Him while we were on earth, (2 Corinthians 5:10), and then enjoy the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7–10). Meanwhile on earth, the Tribulation will have begun.

It is a joy to understand that God has not cancelled His promises to Israel and will return His attention ot his chosen nation in due time. He will fulfill His promises, sadly, the wrath, then joyfully, the bliss.

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The pride of cities

Posted on by elizabethprata

In our Bible Reading Plan we’d read Isaiah 23. In it, was Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre. Tyre was a major city on the coast, to which many ships from afar brought their goods to trade and sell. Tyre was held in high esteem by all around. (Isaiah 23:8). It had prestige and renown.

Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away? 8Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth? 9The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory,c to dishonor all the honored of the earth. (Isaiah 23:7-9)

When a city becomes so vaunted, the leaders of the city become proud. Hence the reason for Isaiah’s oracle against Tyre. (Isaiah 23:9). They attributed their success and fame to themselves, and not to God.

This situation reminded me of the scene in Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar displayed the same problem.

and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).

He attributed the city of Babylon’s success and fame to himself, and not to God. For his selfish boastfulness and pride, God determined to remove the kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar for 7 years, wherein he would live among beasts as a mad person and eat the grass of the field. When 7 years was over, God restored reason to the king and also the kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar praised God for all His glory.

When we see the glittering towers of the city, its cathedrals, towers, strongholds, and castles, we tend to become proud of our accomplishment in building them. We admire the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Sears Tower, the Windsor Castle, the Taj Mahal… We enlarge our sea ports and construct airports and enjoy the trade and commerce merchants willingly bring to the city.

We applaud man’s ingenuity in building these majestic buildings, we love the fame and renown these landmarks bring to the city and we become boastful inhabitants. But we forget that we have no strength of our own, and no intellect, or ability unless God grants it.

Tyre was razed in 332 BC when Alexander the Great conquered it. And Babylon, we know was felled in one night as described in Jeremiah 51:8 and Daniel 5:30.

If a prophet were to prophesy today, what oracle might be spoken about New York City? Los Angeles? Paris? London? Ezekiel 38:20 prophesies a future day when all walls will crumble to the ground. This page shows how many times God said He will destroy a city for its pride and rebellion. We know He destroyed four Cities of the Plain in one night, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim.

The end result of pride, is destruction. This is reiterated in the New Testament, in today’s reading of Matthew 11. There is a section between verses 20-24 called “Woe to Unrepentant Cities” such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18). The verse applies to cities as well. The Isaiah verse we’d read yesterday is warning about this.

milan duomo
EPrata photo
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God’s grief over sin

Posted on by elizabethprata

While reading Psalm 14 in yesterday’s Bible Reading Plan, I was reminded of another set of verses. First, here is Psalm 14-

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.

 2The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

 3They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

 4Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and do not call upon the LORD?
(Psalm 14: 1-4).

We’re familiar with Paul’s reference to Psalm 14:3, in Romans 3:10. We are also familiar with the famous verse in Psalm 14, ‘the fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” ‘

But the tone of the Psalmist crying out to God because of peoples’ ungodliness, reminded me of the tragic verses in Genesis 6:5-6,

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

It’s good to be reminded that as much as we grieve over sin, like the Psalmist, God grieves so much more. When your little one throws a tantrum, or steals his brother’s toy, or hits a kid at school, you’re angry and grieved because we know that behavior is not the best for your child. I wonder what God sees when He looks down upon His children on the earth. According to the Genesis verse, He grieves. We also know He is angry. (Romans 1:18).

Oh, how sweet it will be when all are reconciled in holiness to our Holy God, no more blot or stain to arouse His grief and anger. What a day that will be.

 

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Wayback Wednesday: The Bride Awaits her Groom

Posted on by elizabethprata

This first appeared on The End Time in February 2012.

 

What a lovely and spotless bride Jesus is creating! We often look around and see the mud and grime of the world and despair. For those of us who are older, we remember innocent days when children played outside unsupervised, roamed the streets with sticks and balls and bats, safe and happy. We remember when crime was lower and people were nicer. Today is it pretty ugly out there, and that of course is because of sin. But…the Bride of Jesus is shining, spotless, and beautiful! Do not forget that! Wearing garments white as snow, standing by the crystal sea, singing praises to Jesus! His acceptance of all the wrath of God on our behalf made possible our entrance into heaven. Our ugly and putrid sins were forgiven through His sacrificial act.

This is the long betrothal period, when the bride is separated from her groom. The bride are all those people past, present and future in the Age of Grace who have believed on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and His resurrection. We are anxious, waiting. We are making preparations such as remaining faithful. We are looking forward to the wedding day when everything will be perfect and we will be ready! (Revelation 19:7)

All brides on her wedding day are beautiful. She is radiant, and glowing and smiling and happy. Her white garment is spotless and adorns and wraps her gracefully. All the believers are installed in New Jerusalem, the holy city, which takes on the characteristics of the bride herself, because we who are His bride are in it. (Revelation 21:2).

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

We are finally united with our Groom!

The world is ugly and putrid and dripping with evil and poison and sin. But that is not us, thanks to Jesus our Christ. We are not of the world. Believers are spotless and beautiful in Christ’s eyes.

“…Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 25b-27)

Stand up, you believers, and make ready for the Groom. You are so pure and lovely in His eyes. We who eagerly await Him are also eagerly awaited BY Him!

wedding

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Bible Reading Plan thoughts: The Flood recedes

Posted on by elizabethprata

This chapter 8 of the first book of the Bible, can be thought of as “Judgment and Grace” as pastor S. Lewis Johnson put it in his sermon. It is no surprise that Noah and his family worshiped and sacrificed upon emerging from the ark.

Not only was the ark and Noah and their experience, a revelation of judgment, it was also a beautiful display of grace. And therefore it is not surprising that the first thing that Noah and his family did after they emerged from the ark is to offer the sacrifices of the burnt offerings. ~S. Lewis Johnson

I was struck by the leaf in the dove’s beak.

When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down. (Genesis 8:11).

In the previous verse 10, Noah sent out the bird but the waters were still upon the earth, and she found no place to put her foot. Noah waited the 7 days, and sent the bird out again. She returned this time, and with a freshly plucked leaf in her beak. Johnson said that olive trees tended to grow in the valleys, not the mountain tops, so the leaf indicated that the waters had indeed gone down from top to bottom.

In the space of a week, not only had the waters gone down but life had grown very quickly! Olive trees are extremely hearty and can survive most anything, so maybe this tree was a survivor of the flood. It’s amazing that life had sprung up so quickly after a global devastation such as this.

I believe that we will see such a rapid restoration after the devastating 7-year period of the Great Tribulation. The LORD is not going to renew the earth until after the period of the 1000-year kingdom has concluded. After that, He will melt the earth and then renew it because He will have administered judgment upon all the resurrected dead and sent them – and satan and his demons – to the outer darkness. Death will be no more. The earth with its graves and dead animals and cursed ground will be melted and the earth renewed completely so that death and sin will no longer even be present upon it.

But the Tribulation will take its toll on the earth. It is the uncreation if you will, the islands will have fled away and the mountains crumbled down and the grass and trees burned up and so on. (Revelation 6-16). Then the Lord Jesus will return and put a stop to the rebellion at Armageddon, (Revelation 19:19-21), save his remnant at Petra (Isaiah 63:1), and land on top of the newly split Mt of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).

Saved mortals will make it through the Tribulation alive to see this, and will enter the 1000-year kingdom. The earth will repopulate quickly and lives will grow long again. The earth refreshes itself rapidly so as to sustain the mortals alive and dwelling and being born and generations ensuing. (Isaiah 65:20).

Jesus is the Great Gardener and He will quickly refresh the earth at the end of time after the Tribulation Judgment as He did after the Flood Judgment.

This should help us ponder His omnipotence.

Matt 28:18 — “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Rev.1:8; John 17:2; Eph. I:20-22. Here is power over three realms: First, all power on earth: over disease (Luke 4:38-41); death (John 11); nature, water into wine (John 2); tempest (Matt.8). Second, all power in hell: over demons (Luke 4:35, 36, 41); evil angels (Eph.6). Third, all power in heaven: (Eph.1:20-22). Finally, power over all things: (Heb.2:8; 1:3; Matt.28:18). Source

flood recedes verse.jpg

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Bible reading Plan thoughts: The First Mourning

Posted on by elizabethprata

Our Bible Reading Plan for today includes a text from Genesis 4.  The first murder- Cain killed his brother Abel. Yesterday we read that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and this has been true of all humans ever born or made, including Adam and Eve, with the sole exception of Jesus. The wages of sin is death.

Shortly after the Fall, we see all the sins begin to rear their head; lying, blame, guilt, jealousy, rebellion, and murder. Cain did not fear God. He argued with God and was irreverent with Him. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Soon after, he killed his brother.

A scene which is not in the Bible but must have happened, was depicted in the painting called The First Mourning (Adam and Eve mourn the death of Abel); oil on canvas 1888 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Here it is:
800px-Bouguereau-The_First_Mourning-1888
God had said when He told the First Parents not to eat of the fruit that on the day they eat of it they shall surely die. They did die, spiritually. Their physical death took place many years later. Adam lived over 900 years. That is a long time to remember. Eve, the mother of all the living, was now the mother of the first to die.

When they discovered the body of their son lying lifeless on the ground, they must have mourned. They knew what death was, since God had killed an animal and given them its skins to wear for clothing. They must have killed animals in order to eat, since having been thrown out of the Garden. Abel was a keeper of sheep. Their death was graciously staved off, but their son! O, their son! Their original sin comes back to haunt them in a devastating way. I wrote about this scene in 2014:

We know both of them were familiar with death. Their spiritual life died the moment they disobeyed (“surely you won’t die” the serpent lied in Genesis 3:4). They were familiar with death because God killed the first animal to make clothing out of its skin (the first sacrifice to cover them in their sin). We know they must have killed an animal themselves because they had to eat.

And then…the blood of their son. The Bible does not record the discovery of Abel’s body, nor his burial (as far as I know). But perhaps the scene looked like the one above.

Oh, the searing pain of losing a son! A pain that would be replicated again and again through history as sin took its toll on a million mothers in epochs to come! A grief that the Father Himself would know soon enough!!

The first death was of a beloved son.

The last death was of a beloved Son.

Praise our Holy Savior for His death, for through Him we have life! Praise our Resurrected Savior for vanquishing sin!

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Bible Reading Plan thoughts: Isaiah, Israel, and that Vision

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today’s reading is Isaiah 1-6. Reading the Prophets is tough on the heart. It’s true that there are interpretive difficulties with reading them, because of the history. Sorting out which king and which nation and to whom God is speaking given that the ancient names have gone by the wayside, can be demanding on the serious student.

Also, often in the Prophets there are interpretive difficulties given the nature of prophecy itself. There are different timings of the fulfillments of the prophecies. Some happened in the past. Some are dual-layer prophecies, like the Lord’s first and second comings, or prophecies that have happened in the past and will happen in the future also. Some are prophecies solely for the future.

The interpretive difficulties usually can be resolved with prayer, study, and the aid of the Holy Spirit. It’s a head thing. But the content of the prophecies, they are hard to read because of the mourning that goes along with them. Who can’t but mourn when they read this from Isaiah 1:7-8,

friday isaiah 1 verse

Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Don’t just let the word lie on the page and be head knowledge-history. Apply the words to our life. At the present time of this writing, North Korea is said to be close to creating a nuclear bomb. North Korea has sworn to use their bomb on America. So what if God allows North Korea to be successful? What if America lies desolate, when NK sends a nuke or a dirty bomb or an EMP over Miami, New York, and LA? When those cities or others are burned with fire? When we are overthrown by foreigners? It could happen. It could absolutely happen.

The reason the LORD promised those things to Israel is because of what is said in Isaiah 1:4,

 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

So the mourning is over our personal sin and our national sin of rejecting God. It’s thinking of the terrified Israelites, living in a wasteland, carried off, or starving in a besieged city. It’s recognizing His just perfection when punishing nations for their rebellion, even us. It’s sad.

Then comes the magnificent vision in Chapter 6. What to make of the cherubim, the wings, the resounding praises of God’s holiness. We swing from desolation and sin, punishment and despair, to the temple ringing with majesty and power!

When Isaiah saw this he fell down and said in Is 6:5,

Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

Job and Peter had the same reactions when they realized they were in the presence of the LORD. (Job 42:6, Luke 5:8). Other translations of the Isaiah verse say “I am undone”, “I am ruined” etc. The Hebrew word is “to be destroyed”. There really is no describing how vast the distance between sinful man and God in His glory. Matthew Henry says,

All vain-glory, ambition, ignorance, and pride, would be done away by one view of Christ in his glory. This awful vision of the Divine Majesty overwhelmed the prophet with a sense of his own vileness.

And yet, there is grace. He sent a Mediator to bridge that gap between us lowly sinful creatures and Him in His height and glory. The Prophetical Books follow the pattern of promise, sin, punishment, redemption. The books always end with hope. Indeed, as the Spurgeon devotional this morning is titled:

A Wonderful Guarantee
I will strengthen thee. (Isaiah 41:10)

The guarantee is that God will not leave or forsake us. If we mourn our personal and national sin, as Isaiah did, then we can turn and look upward through this glorious glimpse of chapter 6, of God on His throne, sovereignly ordaining all things coming together for the good of those who love him. In the beginning it was good. In the end it will be good.

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Bible Reading Plan thought for the day: They came to present themselves

Posted on by elizabethprata

job 1 thursday verse.jpg

Satan fell. (Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28:11-19). We do not know when, because the timeline for God’s creation of the universe and all its beings (including angels) is not specifically mentioned in scripture. We know that they were already created when God created the world, because they praised God for it. (Job 38:6-8). We know none of them had fallen by the conclusion of the sixth day when God saw all that he had made, and declared it very good.

By the time Genesis 3 came, though, satan was a fallen, evil, sinful creature. Revelation strongly intimates that he caused a third of his cohorts to fall with him. (Revelation 12:4).

However as we see from today’s verses in the Bible Reading Plan, satan and his cohorts to this day still have access to heaven. They still appear to God. They still stalk the heavenlies and strut in the holy place. God allows this for His sovereign purposes. In another example separate from today’s, we see that God used a lying spirit to deceive Ahab, (2 Chronicles 18:18-22). Satan and hsi demons come and go in heaven.

One day, and what a day that will be, God will SHUT the door of heaven and satan and his third of hosts will not be granted access to heaven any longer. This will occur in the Great Tribulation, as depicted in Revelation 12:7-17. In fact, this rejection enrages the devil so much that he redoubles his efforts to overcome God’s people and His kingdom. The persecutions and evil events already occurring on earth at that time turn to massive and horrific evil as many millions of believers are martyred. Revelation 12 again.

Whether satan is presenting himself before God in heaven or tormenting His people on earth, whether it is the Great Tribulation or just nowadays, God is fully in control. You see in the verses in Job that God set limits to satan’s actions, and satan adhered to them.

God is sovereign, and if you are a believer in Him, with the Holy Spirit in us as a seal of His guarantee of redemption and eternal life, you have already overcome the devil- because Jesus did.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15)

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Today’s Bible Reading: The Scarlet Thread through the Bible

Posted on by elizabethprata

Her are some thoughts based on today’s Bible reading according to the Michael Coley Bible reading Plan, Joshua 1-5. I published the following essay about 5 years ago, in March 2013. It’s been excerpted to remove the discernment lesson about the television series The Bible, but you can read the original article here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The article below is on Dr. Adrian Rogers’ website “Love Worth Finding.”  Dr. Rogers is in heaven now with the Lord, but his work remains and continues to bear fruit for the kingdom.

The Scarlet Thread through the Bible
Dr. Adrian Rogers

Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by…and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. Joshua 2:18-19

Rahab, the woman spoken to in this passage, was a harlot in the city of Jericho. As the Israelites came to possess the land, her city was destined for destruction — and she along with it. But she was delivered, and her life transformed, simply by tying a scarlet cord in her window.

This cord represented the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it pointed toward the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. In fact, all of the Bible is about Jesus Christ and His blood redemption, and you will find this scarlet thread throughout the Word of God.

The Prophecy of the Blood

From the very beginning of human history, it is revealed. When Adam and Eve sinned, God shed innocent blood in order to make them clothes from animal skins (Genesis 3:21). This is a picture of the covering of righteousness that we receive when the Lord Jesus Christ died for us.

In Genesis four we read that Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. They instinctively wanted to worship God. Cain sacrificed the fruit of the ground. Abel had already learned that God demanded blood, so he brought a lamb. God accepted the blood of Abel’s lamb, but He did not accept Cain’s offering. Why? Because “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin” (Hebrews 9:22).

And God told Abraham to sacrifice his long-awaited son Isaac (Genesis 22). Just before Abraham plunged the dagger into the quivering heart of his son, an angel stopped him. Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket. Isaac was set free, but an innocent animal’s blood was shed instead.

Then, God wanted to deliver His people from bondage in the land of Egypt. On the night of the Passover, God instructed each house to slay a lamb and put the blood on their door. God said in Exodus 12:13, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

And in the tabernacle and later in the temple, thousands upon thousands of sheep, oxen, and turtle doves were killed and their blood spilt as sacrifices for sin.

And finally, the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross. His death was the fulfillment of all the prophecy and promises. Revelation 13:8 proclaims that He was slain before the foundation of the world. He came to die; He planned to die; He lived to die; and He was born to die.

Blood is throughout Scripture, but what does Christ’s blood mean to us?

The Power of the Blood

His blood redeems us. There was a price against us that we could not pay, but the blood of Jesus redeemed us. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things…. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

His blood brings us into fellowship with God. According to Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Without the blood of Christ, man is a long way from God.

His blood makes peace with God. Man, by nature, is at war with God; and we can only come to God on His peace terms — the blood atonement. The Bible says in Colossians 1:20, “And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself….”

His blood cleanses. Not only does it remove the punishment of sin, it removes the pollution. I don’t care what sin you’ve committed; “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

His blood gives power over the devil. It’s the blood that Satan fears. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb….” The devil doesn’t want you to learn about the blood. He hates it!

Before this planet was ever swung into space, God had determined in His heart that He would send His Son to die upon the cross. How wonderful it is to trace the scarlet thread of the blood of Christ woven throughout the Bible! How much more wonderful to experience its redemption personally. Praise God for the blood of His Lamb!

~~~~~~~~~end Dr. Rogers~~~~~~~~~

I want you to understand how important the Old Testament is. The scarlet thread runs throughout it. There are pictures and shadows and copies of the Messiah to come. See these verses-

Hebrews 8:5
They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

Hebrews 9:24
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Hebrews 10:1
Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All – For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The Old Testament as well as the New Testament is beneficial for all edification, correction, and reproof. Think about the scarlet thread that runs through the entire Bible…and the power of the Blood.