Behold the Lion!

     Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and one of Jacob’s twelve sons would be the progenitor of the Messiah.

     Before Jacob’s death in Egypt he pronounced prophecies for his twelve sons.  He gave a wonderful blessing to his son Joseph; however, his prophecy for his son Judah is perhaps the most significant.

     Jacob said that Judah’s brothers would bow down to him.  He also said that Judah would provide the seed for Israel’s future Messiah through David and Solomon.

     In addition to those pronouncements Jacob declared that Judah would be like a lion.

     “Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up.  He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse (appoint) him?”  Genesis 49:9

     The Scripture is rich with examples of the Lion exercising His power.  The Father Himself tells of the Lion’s prowess.

     “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance…You shall break them with a rod of iron…”  Psalm 2:8

     Keep in mind the wording ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron.’  We’ll see those words several times.

     The Father also warned the nations to honor the Lion.

     “Now therefore, be wise, O kings…Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.” 

Psalm 2:10a, 12

     ‘Kiss’ in this context means to submit to, or attach to.

     King David also spoke of the power of the future Messiah Lion.

     “He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.  He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries.”  Psalm 110:5-6

     What a difference between the Lamb and the Lion!

     The prophet Isaiah also spoke of the future Lion’s judgment and power.

     “I have trodden the winepress alone…and trampled them in My fury…for the day of vengeance is in My heart…I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, made them drunk in My fury…”  Isaiah 63:3-4, 6

     The phrases ‘day of His wrath’ and ‘day of vengeance’ are the same as the ‘Day of the LORD.’

     Isaiah uses the past tense to describe the Lion’s actions, when in fact they will occur in the future.  When God speaks in the past tense, His words are as good as done.

     Let’s now turn to the final book in the Bible and see the prophet’s words fulfilled.

     Recall when the apostle John wept because there didn’t appear to be anyone worthy to open the scroll in the right hand of the One on the throne?

     “But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep.  Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”  Revelation 5:5

     That’s when John looked and saw in the midst of the throne one appearing as ‘a Lamb as though it had been slain.’

     Of course, the Lamb and the Lion depict the dual roles of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and King of Kings!

     During this age the old devil tries to imitate the power of Christ.

     “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  1 Peter 5:8

     The devil tried to destroy Jesus when He was born, but to no avail.

          “And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.  She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”  Revelation 12:4b-5

     Everyone on earth will see the Lion return to earth at the end of Daniel’s 70^th week.

     John describes the scene.

     “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.  And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.  He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”  Revelation 19:15

     Yes, Jesus is both the Lamb and the Lion, but we must first bow down to the Lamb in order for the Lion to fight for us.

    

The Lamb has Arrived

          There were many anxiously waiting for the arrival of the Lamb; and when His forerunner first laid eyes on Jesus, he said:

     “Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” 

John 1:29

     John’s proclamation was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy 700 years earlier.

     “…My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”  Isaiah 53:11b

     Then after the slaying of the Lamb, and after His resurrection and ascension, Philip was subsequently witnessing to an Ethiopian eunuch.  Philip also quoted Isaiah to explain Jesus.

     “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”  Acts 8:32

     And Paul was even more specific when describing the initial role of Jesus at His first advent.

     “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast…”  1 Corinthians 5:7

     Then Peter summarized the work of Christ on the cross.

     “…you were not redeemed with corruptible things…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world…”

1 Peter 1:18-20

     Paul confirmed that Christ was the Passover Lamb that shed His blood to redeem the Church, and His role as such was established before the world ever existed.

     Christ is now in the heavens at the Father’s right hand.  However, His role as Lamb is far from over.

     Let’s look forward to the future ‘Day of the LORD’ when the Lamb will reclaim all that He paid for on the cross.

     After the fulfillment of the Church age, as described in the initial chapters of Revelation, John heard a loud voice from heaven saying:

     “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”  Revelation 4:1b

     Recall that Jesus said that this current age was the end of the ages.  Then will come the ‘Day of the LORD.’  John was told that he would be shown things that ‘must’ take place after the age of the Church.

     John finds himself in heaven before the throne.  And he saw in the right hand of the one on the throne a scroll sealed with seven seals.  The scroll represented the title deed to the earth, and the seals represented the necessary step by step process to redeem the earth.

     But John was deeply saddened because it appeared that there was no one worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals.

     “So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll…”  Revelation 5:3

     But one of the elders assured John that there was one who was worthy.

     “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne…stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…”  Revelation 5:6

     “Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”  Revelation 5:7

     That act elicited tremendous excitement in heaven, and the four living creatures and elders fell down before the Lamb and sang a new song.

     “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood…”  Revelation 5:9

     Thereafter the seals are opened, the trumpets are blown, and the final seven bowls of wrath are poured out on the earth. 

     The earth is reclaimed and for 1,000 years there is relative peace.

     Then after the millennial kingdom, all who have rejected Christ as the Passover Lamb are resurrected from Hades to stand before the great white throne.

     After the judgment, the earth is renewed and New Jerusalem descends from heaven.

     “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles... but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  Revelation 21:27

     And the same John who initially recognized Jesus as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,’ saw the Trinity.       

     “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Revelation 22:1

     The Lamb is forever!

Behold the Lamb!

     One of our most cherished, timeless hymns is entitled Redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb.

     The roots of that song go way back.

     Let’s first cite several Scripture passages that form the basis of this song.

     “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” 

Romans 3:23

     “For the wages of sin is death…”  Romans 6:23

     “…for the life of the flesh is in the blood…” Leviticus 17:11a

     “…for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” 

Leviticus 17:11b

     Notice that all of the above passages begin with the prepositional prefix ‘for’ which indicates a causal relationship.

     The truth that blood covers one’s sins was first introduced when God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins before they were banished from the garden.  The time was approximately 4,000 BC.

     Adam and Eve had two sons, i.e. Cain and Abel.  Cain was a tiller of the ground and ‘brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.’

     Abel, on the other hand, was a keeper of sheep.  And Abel brought an offering of the ‘firstborn of his flock and of their fat.’

     ‘Fat’ in this context means ‘best’ and ‘finest.’

     Abel’s offering was accepted by the LORD while Cain’s was not.  Just as Adam and Eve’s attempt to cover their sin with fig leaves was replaced with animal skins, which meant that some living animal had shed its blood and sacrificed its life to cover their sin.

     Fast forward approximately 2,000 years to the time of Abraham.  God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  Abraham immediately obeyed and took his son to Mount Moriah as instructed.

     Upon arriving at the designated place, Isaac questioned his father asking where the lamb was which was to be offered.

     Abraham told Isaac that God would provide for Himself the lamb.

     Then Abraham bound Isaac on the altar that he had built; and as he took his knife to slay Isaac, God called out to him from heaven not to slay his son.

     And sure enough, a male sheep was caught in a thicket to be offered as a substitute.

     Abraham had passed God’s test of trust and faith.

     Abraham then called the place Jehovah-jireh from the Hebrew ‘Raah’ meaning to perceive, to see intellectually.  Approximately 1,000 years later Solomon would begin building the temple on that very spot.

     About 500 years after Abraham’s test, God instituted the ‘Passover’ associated with the last plague on the Egyptians immediately preceding the Exodus.

     God instructed Moses to tell the people that on the 10^th day of the first month each family was to pick a lamb from their flocks to offer to the LORD on the evening preceding their departure.

     “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.”

 Exodus 12:5

      ‘Without blemish,’ means ‘whole’ or ‘perfect.’  And ‘first’ means ‘appointed’ or ‘young.’ 

      Then God gave instructions for the chosen lamb.

     “Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.  Then the whole… congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” Exodus 12:6

     ‘Twilight’ has several connotations; however, Josephus reports that the customary time to kill the Passover Lamb at the time of Christ was 3:00 PM.

     The blood of the lamb was to be applied to the doors of the Israelites’ houses, and when the LORD saw the blood He would pass over that house and not slay their firstborn.

    “And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.”  Exodus 12:7

     As history progressed another 650 years, the prophets proclaimed that the coming Messiah would suffer in the same manner as the Passover lamb.

     “…and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…for the transgressions of My people He was stricken…My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”  Isaiah 53:6b, 7b, 8b, 11b

     ‘Laid’ means ‘intercessor.’  ‘Justify’ means to ‘cleanse.’

     And note again the prepositional prefix ‘for,’ which explains the causal relationship pertaining to His death.

    

    

   

Division is a Given

     In the third chapter of Genesis, God declared that there would be great division among mankind.  This column has quoted the following verse many times.  Its message will remain through the ages until the final showdown between the Seed of Isaac and Ishmael square off.

     “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed…”  Genesis 3:15

     ‘Put’ in the present context means ‘appoint.’

     Jesus confirmed the great division that would be present during His first advent on earth, even within families.

     “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth?  I tell you, not at all, but rather division.  For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two and two against three.  Father will be divided against son…”  Luke 12:51-53a

     The division will be the result of some within the family committing to the gospel message, versus those who reject the gospel.

     When Jesus began to teach the crowds, there was great division; some believed His words while others did not. For example, recall the tradition during the Feast of Tabernacles when a pitcher of water from the pool of Siloam was carried by the High Priest to the temple and offered as a sacrifice on the altar.

     On the last day of one such feast, Jesus cried out:

     “…If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  John 7:37a-38

     He was, of course, speaking of the Holy Spirit that would enter into the hearts of those who would believe in Him.  However, this teaching caused great controversy.

     “So there was a division among the people because of Him.”  John 7:43

     Recall the controversy over Jesus healing the blind man on the Sabbath day.  The man had been blind since birth.

     The miracle was witnessed by many; however, some who witnessed the healing still wouldn’t accept Jesus’ authority.

     “Therefore some of the Pharisees said, ‘This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.’  Other said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’  And there was a division among them.”  John 9:16

     Jesus continued to teach that He was the Son of God, inasmuch as He had the power to lay down His life and be raised up from the grave.  Some said He had a demon, while others believed, remembering His previous miracles.

     “Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings.”  John 10:19

     And then during the church age, there was great division between the believers and the deniers.  Consider the contention caused by Paul and Barnabas when they preached the gospel message to both Jews and Greeks.

     “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren…But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.”  Acts 14:2, 4

     Again, the division was caused by preaching and teaching the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

     Paul also caused great division when he addressed a council consisting of both Sadducees and Pharisees.  He spoke as a Pharisee to authenticate his authority.

     “…he cried out to the council, ‘Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee… concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!’ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was divided.  For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection…”  Acts 23:6-8a

     So once again the division focused on the word of God and the person of Jesus Christ.

     Consider the major divisions within our nation today.  One of the most contentious issues is the definition of when life begins for a child.  The Bible is very clear.  Thus the divisions in America are in fact, between those who live by Biblical teachings and those who do not. 

     Not much has changed.

     How does this affect America’s future?

     “But Jesus…said...‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.’”

Matthew 12:25