Jesus and Isaac

In my last post I discussed Noah and the flood and the renewal of the covenant that God made with Adam in creation, after the covenant blessing Noah celebrated by drinking from his vineyard and got drunk while his son Ham had committed incest with his mother(he uncovered his fathers nakedness lev.18:6,7) Noah then curses Ham and his incest born son Canaan but blesses his first born son Shem Gen.9:26 ''blessed be the Lord the God of Shem'',who covered his fathers nakedness.Now there are 10 generations from Shem to Terah the father of Abram.

The Lord had said to Abram ''Leave your country,your people and your Fathers household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.''

Here God's plan of salvation begins a new chapter with Abram; He promised him a new land to live in, a large and prosperous family, A great nation and kingdom and A blessing to the whole world.Later God upgrades his covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham Gen.17:4-5 (which means father of many) He also promised him a son by his wife Sarah "I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.I will bless her so that she be will a mother of nations;kings of people will come from her.'' Here God makes an everlasting covenant with him and his future son Isaac.But what about Ishmael who was born by Hagar his Egyptian slave? (she became his substitute wife when Sarah couldn,t conceive) In Gal.4:23 Paul says ''His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way;but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.'' And in :28,30 Paul says ''Now you, brothers,like Isaac,are children of promise....for the slave woman's son will NOT share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.'' Gen.17:20-21 God says ''As for Ishmael , I have heard you; I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and increase his numbers....." ''BUT my covenant I will establish with Isaac''.Why is this important? because Isaac would have a son named Jacob who became Israel and had 12 sons who became 12 tribes. The tribe of Judah (where we get the Jews from) would produce the Christ Gen.49:8-12.....''the scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet''.....Notice in :11 '' ...he will wash his garments in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes''. It sounds like an image of His sacrifice! Which brings us to the next point here Gen.22:1-2 says Some time later God tested Abraham. He said "Abraham''! ''Here I am Lord''. Then God said to him ''Take your son, your son Isaac whom you love and go to the region of Moriah.Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.''
Now this is important because Mount Moriah is in Salem the same place Melchizedek came from, the priest who brought bread and wine to Abraham 14:18-20 (he was a type of Christ heb.7:1-3), it,s the same place where Solomon would one day build the temple 2chron.3:1 and where Jesus would one day be crucified (calvary is a hill on mount moriah). Jeru-Salem means ''God will provide-peace''. Notice here how Isaac carried his own wood in :6 just like Jesus carried his own cross up the hill John 19:17 says ''Carrying his own cross,he went to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha) in Gen.22:8 Abraham prophesied and said "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering,my son'' John 1:29 ''look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'' But when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son God stopped him and said "Do not lay a hand on the boy.Do not do anything to him.Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son,your only son'' Gen.22:12 Unlike Adam who refused to give his life for God and mankind became a curse, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his life and so mankind has been blessed!

Now let,s notice some of the language here because it sounds familiar ''your son ,your only son'' Gen 22:2 is the same as John 3:16 ''God so loved the world he gave his one and only son...'' and in Rom.8:32 says ''He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all..'' Sounds a lot like...''you have not withheld from me your son'' Gen.22:12
Now before I move on to my next post we need to look at one more passage in Gen.15:13-16 God says to Abraham "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not there own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions.You however will go to your fathers in peace and be buried in a good old age.In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here...''
Ok next time I will look at the Exodus. God bless!

Jesus and Noah

In my last discussion I talked about the fall of Adam and the 'curse' of sin on humanity,now we will look at the fruits of that sin and God's plan of salvation.

From Adam to Noah there are 10 generations;the bad seed can be traced back to Cain who killed his younger brother Abel and said "am I my brother's keeper?''.At the end of the ten generations God sends his judgement on the world in the form of a flood.Gen.6:1-2 says ''When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose''. Who are the sons of God? they are from the good seed of Seth, Adam's youngest son, who were the first to ''call on the name of the Lord''.Gen.4:26.But the daughters of men were of the bad seed of Cain and were 'beautiful' which led the sons of God into temptation and notice 'they married any of them as they chose' which went against God's first Covenant between One woman and One man; see matt.19:4-6.But worst of all the daughters of men began bearing children, these children grew up an became even more violent and wicked than Cain, and are described as....''mighty men that were of old,the men of renown'' Gen.6:4 and in Gen.6:5 it says .....''the wickedness of man was great in the earth,and that every thought of his heart was only evil continually.'' Continually? can you imagine what kind of world this must of been? God had no choice but to 'wipe them out', except for Noah and his family.

In the flood God drowns out the bad seed of Cain but preserves the good seed of Seth through Noah whom God had found 'favour'.Gen.6:8 The story of the flood reads like a new creation story.Like Adam God gives Noah authority over the animals ,He commands him to be fruitful and multiply and he makes a Covenant with him like he did with Adam. Now God uses Covenants to make us his family.A Covenant is a binding promise sealed with a sign it cannot be broken, it,s a sacred bond like marriage.With Adam God made a Covenant and the seventh day was the sign that sealed the Covenant and Adam and his wife became part of His family ''it was the first step in the forging of covenant of the one God and his people'' CCC. With Noah God renews his Covenant with his creation. Gen.9:9-13 says ''I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you....and this is the sign of the Covenant I am making between me and you....I have set my rainbow in the clouds...'' The sign of the first Covenant was the sabbath day and the sign of the second Covenant was the rainbow (both symbolic of creation).
And how does the Covenant with Noah point us to Jesus? Noah built an Ark which was a symbol of God's mercy; just as Jesus built a Church which is the 'Ark of Salvation', in which is also a symbol of God's mercy; Noah was ''a preacher of righteousness'' 2 pete2:5; Jesus was ''a prophet ,powerful in word and in deed'' Luk.24:19 The flood points us to the sacrament of baptism ...''this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also...'' 1 pete 3:21 and when Jesus was baptized.....''a spirit came down from heaven as a dove and remained on him.'' John 1:32 and in Gen.8:10-11 Noah sends out a dove every seven days until it returns an olive branch. Amen, in my next post I will discuss Jesus and Isaac. God bless!

Jesus and Adam

There are many today who believe that all religions are the same.True that many share similar values but only one faith can forgive sins and set us free from death, rom.5:8 says ''God proved his love for us in this:while we were still sinners Christ died for us''. No we don,t deserve it but God has offered to us because of his love for us John.3:16.

But to understand this we need to go back to the 'beginning' Gen.1:1. In 1 John 1:1 it says
''That which was from the beginning,which we have heard,which we have seen with our eyes,which we have looked at and our hands have touched......'' Here John is giving testimony on the coming of God in the
flesh. John 1:1-3,14 says ''In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God,and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made;without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life,and that life was the light of men.....The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This means that Jesus was there when God said ''let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness'',Gen.1:26. Now ''image'' and ''likeness'' implies kinship . Look at Gen.5:1-3 When God created man,he made him in the likeness God.....when Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness,after his image and named him Seth. As Adam was God's first born son Jesus was God"s only begotten Son.In col.1:15-17 it says "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.For by him all things were created.....all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things. And heb.1:1-2 says ''In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,and THROUGH WHOM HE MADE ALL THINGS.''

When God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of good and evil He said ''for when you eat of it you shall surely die'' And when God put Adam in the garden He gave him 'dominion' which gave him authority like a King (like Christ) He tells him to ''till and keep it'' which means he was given priestly duties (like Christ) to defend the sanctuary Num.18:5. But Adam failed in his duties and failed to protect the 'woman' Eve his wife . And so the serpent went straight to the woman and lied ''you will not surely die' Gen.3:4. Eve doubted God's word and fell into temptation and Adam did likewise. God's plan of Salvation began immediately. Gen.3:15 ...he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.'' and The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Gen.3:21 .God provided a 'covering' for their sin rather than their own covering .Gen.3:7. Just as he covers us with the Lambs blood rather than our own good efforts. Let,s look carefully at what God said to Eve and the serpent because it,s parallel can be found in Rev.12:1-4,17.....she was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.....the dragon (serpent of old) stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth,so that he might devour her child....and he went off to make war with the rest of her offspring....And Gen.3:15....''I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and hers.....'' and to the woman he said ''I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;with pain you will give birth to children'' Gen.3:16.The curses given to the 'woman' and the serpent in Gen.3 have now reached a climax in Rev.12.The 'woman' in Rev.12 is symbolic of Mary and the Church, her offspring.Mary is being portrayed as the 'new' Eve (mother of the new creation) ''Woman, behold,your son! Then he said to the disciple ''Behold,your mother!'' John 19:26,27. You will notice quite a bit in the Gospel of John how Jesus calls Mary 'woman' rather than mother.Read the story of the wedding at Cana how Jesus makes new wine out of water which is a symbol of the New Covenant.This wedding is also a symbol of the bridegroom and the Church.A new wedding for a new creation As Genesis 'begins' with a creation story and a marriage, so too does the Gospel of John 'begin' with a new creation story and a new wedding feast 'symbolically' between a new Adam and a new Eve. And how does the bible end? With a 'creation' and a 'wedding' Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...Rev.21:1,, and....Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb'' Rev.19:9...''Come I will show you the bride,the wife of the Lamb.''Rev.21:9

Now Adam and his wife broke the Covenant and a curse came over them and on the rest of humanity from generation to generation, father to father until Jesus came Mat.1:20-21 "he will save his people from their sins'' and 1 Pet.1:18... ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers.... And in rom.5:14 says ''But from the time of Adam to the time of Moses death ruled over all mankind,even over those who did not sin (the prophets) in the same way Adam did when he disobeyed God's command. Adam was a figure of the one to come'' (Jesus):15 ''but the two are not the same''. What it,s saying here is that death came through Adam but life came through Jesus! 1 cor.15:21-22 says ''For since death came through a man,the Resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.For as in Adam all die,so in Christ all will be made alive''. 1 cor.15:45-47 says ''the first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam (Jesus),a life giving-giving spirit...the first man (Adam) was of the dust of the earth, the second man (Jesus) from heaven...2 cor.5:17 says"Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation;the old has gone,the new has come'' Look at what it says in Rev.1:12,13 ''I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.And when I turned around I saw seven golden lampstands ,and among the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.'' This is a vision of Jesus in heaven ! Daniel the prophet had a similar vision hundreds of years earlier...in Dan.7:13 he says ''In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,coming with the clouds of heaven....In Rev.1:17 it says ''When I saw him,I fell at his feet as though dead.Then he placed his right hand on me and said Do not be afraid . I am the first and the last. I am the living one;I was dead ,and behold I am alive forever and ever ! And I hold the keys of death and hades.'' Rev.21:6 he says '' It is done .I am the Alpha and the Omega,the beginning and the end. Now we can proudly sing "Death has been destroyed Victory is now complete''! 1cor.15:55 Amen, in my next post I will discuss Jesus and Noah. God bless!