Messiah - Covenant Keeper, Healer, Priest, King

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. As you read, I encourage you to add in any reflections or comments you may have.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Devotions: Ps 45, 47, 48; Gen 15:1-21; Heb 9:1-14; Jn 5:1-18

Praise to the Messiah: You are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is lavished on Your lips. Gird on Your sword, Mighty One; ride forth in glory and majesty! Ride to victory, eternal King; You rule with equity, and God has anointed You with the oil of gladness. The Bride exults at Your approach, her Lord and Bridegroom. You will be praised forever! Let all peoples exult and celebrate before our God; the Lord, the Most High, is terrible in aspect, incomparable in might. God reigns, and human princes bow before Him. Let us go up to His holy city, and wonder at its ramparts and citadels. This is our God, our Guide forever.

When Abram had returned from freeing Lot and his household from the Canaanite kings, YHWH came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram. I AM your Shield; your reward will be very great.’ Abram replied, ‘O Lord God, what can You do for me? I have no heir; Eliezer of Damascus will inherit my possessions—a slave born in my household!’ But God said, ‘No, this man will not be your heir; your own son will inherit your household.’ God had Abram look to the skies: ‘Consider the heavens and number the stars, if you can. So shall your descendants be!’ And Abram believed YHWH, and God reckoned his faith as righteousness. God said to Abram, ‘I Am YHWH who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to possess this land.’ Abram asked, ‘How shall I know this for certain?’ God arranged a blood covenant: ‘Bring to Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a pigeon.’ According to the custom, Abram cut the animals (but not the birds) in two, and laid the halves against one another; and he protected the carcasses from the birds of prey that came down upon them. As the sun set, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and holy awe and great darkness came over him. Then YHWH said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be sojourners and slaves in a foreign land; they will be oppressed there for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on that nation, and afterward they will come forth with great possessions. You will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. Your tribe will return here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’ And in the dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces of the sacrificed animals—a sign that God was cutting a blood covenant with Abram; and He declared, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Nile to the Euphrates—the lands now inhabited by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonities, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.’

The Hebrew writer continues his exposition: Even the first covenant had regulations governing worship and an earthly sanctuary—a tabernacle with chambers. In the outer chamber, the Holy Place, were the lampstand and the table with the Bread of the Presence. Behind the second curtain, in the inner tabernacle, the Holiest Place, were the gold incense altar, the golden ark of the covenant, which contained a golden urn holding manna, and Aaron’s rod that had budded, and the tables of the Covenant, and above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. With these provisions completed, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties. But into the inner chamber, only the high priest goes, only once a year, never without blood which he offers as sacrifice for his own sins and for the errors of the people. By all this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the inner sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer sanctuary, symbolic of the present age, still stands. In this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered, but they cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper; they deal only with diet, various ablutions---regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when the Messiah appeared as High Priest of the good things which now have come, He entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle—not made with hands, not of this creation; He entered the Holy Place taking His own blood, not that of animals, and thus He secures an eternal redemption. If the sprinkling of defiled people with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies and purifies the flesh, how much more does the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a national feast. In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate lies a pool called Bethzatha, with five porticoes. There lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame and paralyzed. One man there had been ill for 38 years. Jesus saw him and knew he had lain there a long time; He said to the man, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ The man replied, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, because while I am going toward the water, another always steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.’ At once, the man was healed, took up his pallet, and walked. All this occurred on a Sabbath, and Jewish authorities accosted the healed man: ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to be carrying your pallet today.’ He answered, ‘The man who healed me directed me to take up my pallet and walk.’ ‘Who is this man who told you to do this?’ The man didn’t know Jesus, for Jesus had withdrawn from the crowded place. Later, Jesus found the man in the temple and told him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, so that nothing worse befalls you.’ The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had healed him. The Jews persecuted Jesus because He did this on a Sabbath. But Jesus answered them: ‘My Father is working still, and I Am working.’ The Jews redoubled their resolve to kill Jesus, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but called God His own Father, claiming equality with God.