THE PROMISE OF GOD

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Recently, Michael and I were talking about some of our previous blogs which chronicle God’s second chances for people like Jonah, David and Peter. We agreed that, Biblically speaking, these stories are well known and, for blog writers like ourselves, low-hanging fruit because of this familiarity. Michael asked, “Can’t we go deeper into this subject and, in the process, get even more basic in a way that casts greater light on God who specializes in restoration and new hope for the soul?” The answer to his question is, “Yes, we can,” and by the grace of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, our Friend, this week we will do just that.

 

Ernest Hemingway once said that, in order to be an effective author, an aspiring one should always remember one thing and little else. He wrote,

 

“Sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and don’t do another thing until you can do the following: Write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

 

Taking this advice to heart, Michael and I will begin with the truest sentence that we know:

 

“The Bible is the story of God’s determination to give second chances.”

 

Having said that, we can be equally sure that He, in doing this, will go about it in a way that may be apparent in its nucleus, the heart of its theological architecture, but then be carried out so gradually in practice that only in retrospect can His brilliance and strategy be revealed. Thus it is with the central theme of what this Bible is all about that we begin our blog – God’s rescue plan to give mankind a second chance to, so to speak, be spiritually back in Eden before the Fall, to be returned to a right relationship with Him.

 

The moral catastrophe that precipitated the need for another chance is, of course, common knowledge and not something that needs further explanation. Satan’s temptation, as set forth in Genesis 3 succeeded and mankind was exiled out of the Garden where they had once been in perfect association with God, their maker. God’s solution to the moral dilemma of how to make everything right again between Himself, completely holy, and man, fallen and sinful, initially looks like it’s going to be a very quick fix, a precipitous solution. Let’s look at the central words in Scripture that foretell the answer to the problem. This verse recounts God speaking directly to Satan:

 

“He will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

(Genesis 3:15) NIV

 

To quote directly from my book, How to Find God in Under Five Hours, “Who is the ‘he’ about whom God the Father is speaking? It is His Son, Jesus. (Interestingly, even here in the Old Testament, Jesus is not mentioned by name.) God begins unfolding His plan to defeat Satan and redeem the world…It will involve a true spiritual battle between the evil one, the tempter in Eden, and His own Son. In the process, Satan’s head, or seat of power, will be crushed and destroyed…Satan will strike Jesus’ heel…A strike to the heel is painful, but a crushing blow to the head is deadly.” With these words, God has made His promise to save us, to give us a second chance.

 

What follows is the very antithesis of the aforementioned quick fix or precipitous solution. It is as circuitous a route to our glory as can possibly be imagined. Have you ever thought about the following? Should you take an English Bible concordance and search for the word Jesus, you will not find a single mention of him by the name, Jesus, in all of the Old Testament. (There are appearances by him, called Christophanies, but other words are used to describe him in these.) The first time we see the word, Jesus, is in Matthew 1:1 in the New Testament. Instead, God, whose mind we cannot know, (1 Corinthians 2:11), NIV, takes us through time and Scripture in a roundabout way that, as we stated earlier, can only be well understood or appreciated, by looking back after considering the entire story.

 

Wait, one might say, maybe the name, Jesus, may not be spoken of directly, but the word Christ surely is. In fact, it is not noted until John 1:17 in the New Testament. What about the word, Messiah? The King James Version of the Bible mentions it once in Daniel 9:25-26. In the NIV, it is never written in the Old Testament. (We are, of course, referencing the English translations of the Bible.)

 

However, having said this, let’s clarify something very quickly. The Old Testament is full of references to the coming Savior – they are everywhere. The concept of this Messiah permeates the Old Testament. The Jews are waiting and watching for him with every breath! But, it is how God, in His word, chooses to establish this central theme, this reason for everything in the Old Testament, that, as Michael says, takes us deeper. As stated, God’s is a roundabout way, and He has an important reason for this. When in Genesis 3:15, He tells Satan that his head will be crushed, God is promising Jesus’ advent and, as with all of God’s promises, He will deliver – in His own matchless way, in His own perfect timing and according to the method which best prepares us to recognize Jesus when he does come to Earth.

 

Why didn’t God just send Jesus to us right after the Fall of Man in Eden? Why did He wait thousands of years to do this? Michael and I believe that He was readying the world into which Jesus would finally arrive. As just stated, He had much to teach mankind, a process that would just take that long. To understand God’s message, we will revisit the words and concepts God used to point to and explain the central act of all history – Jesus’ arrival on Earth.

 

Let’s begin with the word used to convey the good news that a Savior of the world was coming to deliver mankind from physical slavery and its counterpart, the spiritual slavery of sin. This was God’s promise to the Jews and, ultimately, to all. That word is ANOINTED and its importance cannot be overemphasized. Of further critical significance is the fact that the word Christ comes from the Greek word cristos, meaning anointed one. In the Greek Septuagint or the Old Testament, christos was used to translate the Hebrew word, Messiah, meaning one who is anointed. This is all foundational to our blog this week.

 

One might correctly say, at this point, that now we are speaking of a word, i.e. ANOINTED, that is OFTEN used in the Old Testament. Many times it describes two groups of powerful people – priests and kings. The Messiah, though not mentioned by name, is prefigured in some uses of the word anointed, but not all. As we are saying, in Scripture, many ordinary priests and kings were anointed with oil. And yet, God delayed THE ANOINTED ONE’S ( Daniel 9:25-26) KJV, Jesus,’ mission to Earth for an epic stretch of time. What message was God sending? Let’s turn to the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament for one of the answers:

 

“Therefore, since we have a great HIGH PRIEST (emphasis added) who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

(Hebrews 4:14) NIV

 

Priests served as intermediaries between God and Man in the Old Testament and this is pivotal today in what Jesus does for us:

 

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

(John 14:6) NIV

 

What could be more important for us to realize than this! Every anointed priest in the Old Testament FORESHADOWED JESUS even though Jesus’ name was never stated. These priests were intermediaries; Jesus is THE INTERMEDIARY!

 

As to Jesus’ Kingship, Revelation 17:14, NIV, states,

 

“They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.”

 

Revelation 17:19 emphasizes this, speaking of Jesus:

 

“KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

 

Here, the lesson of Kingship is primarily Jesus’ Sovereignty, his supreme power and authority. The sovereignty of the anointed Old Testament kings PREFIGURED this ultimate King, Jesus.

 

Foreshadowing Jesus as High Priest and King of Kings only begins the reason for God’s delay of the advent of Jesus on Earth. Yet, they further figure into God’s rationale for waiting thousands of years.

 

First, Jesus’ coming to Earth is further foreshadowed by God’s Old Testament law regarding animal sacrifice in order to cleanse sin. The specificity of how critical this was and the exact manner in which it was to be

accomplished, is spelled out in great detail in the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Leviticus. Michael points out that this act could only lawfully be performed by a priest. Those, like King Saul, who attempted to perform this ritual, paid a severe penalty for it. Saul lost his kingship, in large part, for this violation.

 

Furthermore, this act of atonement had to be undertaken with an animal WITHOUT DEFECT. (Leviticus 22:20) NIV. God allowed many centuries to pass before sending Jesus to Earth so that this latter requirement could be emphasized. Why? Because it PREFIGURED and taught that when Jesus, the Anointed One came, he would only be able to vicariously atone for sin IF he was, himself, without sin.

 

Next, this is also elucidated at the First Passover, when the Jews were told to take a male lamb, WITHOUT DEFECT and to place its blood on the sides and tops of their DOORFRAMES. (Exodus 12:5,7) NIV. Jesus, or the LAMB OF GOD, (John 1:29) NIV, once again, had to be without sin and his blood spilled on the wooden cross, echoing back to the Passover doorframes. When, at Passover, the Jews followed these instructions, the angel of death passed over their houses. In the New Testament, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross causes sin’s angel of spiritual death to pass over us, as Jesus is the penance for our sin.

 

The delay in sending Jesus was firmly wrapped up in this lesson and the establishment of Jesus’ spiritual credentials to be the Messiah, as modeled in this Old Testament ritual.

 

This is additionally buttressed in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, where it is written that,

 

“…he was pierced for our transgressions…and by his wounds we are healed…

And the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.”

(Isaiah 53:5-6) NIV

 

As to Jesus’ Kingship, God speaks through His word in many passages that are Messianic without using the actual word, Messiah. This blog is a format much too brief to detail all of these. Michael and I have chosen only two for today. The first comes out of the minor prophet, Micah’s, Book, where he speaks of who can only be the coming King, the Messiah, born in the line of King David:

 

“But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, (David’s country)…

though you are small among the

clans of Judah, (Jesus’ tribe)

out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from old,

from ancient times.”

(Micah 5:2) NIV

 

The second passages are like the first in that they have to do with Jesus’ Kingship:

 

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse” (King David’s father)

(Isaiah 11:1) NIV

 

“In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples…”

(Isaiah 11:10) NIV

 

Jesus was, of course, born in Bethlehem and from the line of King David. This is the ancestry of the King of Kings.

 

Only Jesus fulfills more than 300 Biblical predictions of the identity of the Messiah.

 

Why would God wait thousands of years to send Jesus into our world? Why does the Old Testament language stress the word anointed? As earlier stated, God was readying us all for the first advent of Jesus and helping us recognize him as the Messiah. God is, even now, making it easier and easier, in His own perfect way, to know our Savior by his priestly, kingly, Messianic credentials. God help us to see what is so clearly undertaken by God in this long odyssey over the centuries, as He makes His divine case for this truth and as he fulfills His trustworthy promise to send His Son on the rescue mission of the ages – truly mankind’s second chance.