"I Thirst"

“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.” I think that it is very interesting that Christ chooses to express a condition so uniquely human at this point on the cross, a point in which he had fully taken our place, and it always manages to remind me of the fact that He experienced this world exactly the way that we do. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” Hebrews 4:15 It is also worth mentioning that Christ’s thirst likely goes far beyond a physical need for water. As we just stated, at this point on the cross Christ was in our place and had fully taken on all of our sin. This is why Christ cried out “My God My God, why hast though forsaken me?” It was the only time that He did not call Him Father. He couldn’t because he was in our shoes. For the first time in all eternity God the Son was separated from God the Father and He longed for the righteousness that up until this point He had always known. Two simple words “I thirst”: He balanced the clouds, and filled the mighty deep. He who guided every river in its course, who commands the rain to fall and water the parched earth, who caused water to flow from the smitten rock in the wilderness, who calmed the roaring seas, who turned the water into wine and said to the Woman of Samaria: “Give me to drink.” who promised all, that should they follow Him, they would never again thirst. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, before whom hell trembles and the earth is filled with dismay; endures matchless condescension from the infinite power of the Almighty God to the weakness of a thirsty, dying man! We must always remember just how much it cost Him so that we might be free. 1st Corinthians 6:20 reminds us that we, “are bought with a price” and we should never lose sight of how great that price was! How then should we live? 1st Corinthians 6:20 goes on to tell us that we should glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, each of which belong to God. We should thank Him and glorify His name continually for all that He has done on our behalf!!

The First Marriage and The Last Adam

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen. 2:24

This verse is quoted by Jesus in Matt 10:6-9 and Mark 19:4-6. Why is the idea of marriage, particularly marriage between one man and one woman in a lasting union so important to God? Let's look at the first union of man and woman in the Bible and see what we can glean.

My understanding and insight into the scriptures was hindered my whole life until God brought me to the realization that every word, every place, every name, every number, every letter, every story points to Jesus Christ.

That being said, it is puzzling how Paul could say in Romans 5:14 that " death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come" When Paul says that Adam is “similitude” or foreshadowing of "him that was to come” who is he talking about? Well “him that was to come” is of course none other than Jesus Christ. This verse in fact gives us one of the many names we use for Christ, that being the "Last Adam" 1st Corinthians 15:45. So how is it that Adam, who sinned by taking the forbidden fruit, be a figure or foreshadowing of Jesus Christ?

The most important part of this story is to realize what caused Adam to sin. We can find the answer to this in1st Timothy 2:14 "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." If Adam was not deceived, then we can conclude that Adam knew what he was doing. He knew the consequences that this sin entailed and yet he knowingly and willingly took this sin upon himself. So again we ask how could Adam be a figure or a Jesus Christ? The answer is really quite touching.

Let’s look at what had taken place up to the point in which Adam was offered the fruit. Eve had been deceived and she had sinned; her eternal salvation had been forfeited. She was doomed to be eternally separated from God due to her sin. She would now have to face the world and death completely alone, for there were none who shared her predicament.

Adam on the other hand, before he took the fruit mind you, was perfect, he walked with God, he dwelt in paradise, he partook of all the blessings and joy that God offers one who is in perfect communion with Him. Adam, had he chosen, could have left Eve to her terrible fate. He had not sinned and was not subject to the punishment she would certainly endure. However that is not what Adam chose to do at all. Adam knew that Eve's fate was sealed and he knew exactly what partaking of her sin would ultimately cost him, yet he loved her so much that he chose to leave his Father’s side and made Eve's sin his own so that his bride would not have to face a world of sin and death alone with no hope of redemption. You could technically say that he "became sin" for her.

I don’t think it’s too difficult to realize that our Father is trying to show us is that this is exactly what Christ did for us "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And just like Adam, Christ, out of the immense love He had for His beloved bride, left His Father’s side, stepped into a sinful world, took His bride’s sin upon Himself and ultimately gave His life so that she, His bride, would not have to face this world of sin alone with no hope of redemption. "God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 Adam’s story is just the opening stanza of a love story, written in blood on a cross in Judea over 2,000 years ago.

So that brings us back to the original question. Why is the idea of marriage between one man and one woman in a lasting loving union so important to God? Because marriage offers us a way to experience if only in a small way the love that Christ, the groom, feels towards us, His bride, and the love and reverence that we, the bride, should have for Christ, our groom. Marriage provides a way for us to experience the relationship Christ desires with us in a way that is impossible by any other means.

It is also worth mentioning that because Adam took on this sin, it provided means by which offspring would be produced through which the God of Eternity would be born of a virgin in small Judean town and ultimately take that first sin and all that will ever be committed upon Himself and do exactly for us what Adam did for his bride.

“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed [are] they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Revelation 19:9

Note: I would like to point out that Adam did sin and betrayed God. No sin is justified, and God does not cause people to sin for his own purposes. However God in all his glory used what Adam had done to give an example in the earliest parts of the scriptures of the price Christ would ultimately pay for his beloved bride. Remember that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was not a tragedy, it was an accomplishment, it was a victory, it was the culmination of a plan laid down before the world began. Christ when speaking to the two men on the road to Emmaus about His suffering and death on the cross ask "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Luke 24:26. Christ himself tells us that it happened exactly the way it was supposed to. What an amazing God we serve!!

For another story about marriage from the Bible see my post titled Christ's First Miracle
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Under the Lamb

Over the year’s archeologist, anthropologist, theologians, missionaries and many others have found countless examples where certain elements of a certain people group's customs or traditions point directly to the God of the Bible and Christ’s finished work. Missionaries in turn have been able to use these elements, which appear to have been strategically placed, to win souls for Christ. An example of this was presented in the previous post regarding the custom of the Sawi tribe's offering of a "Peace Child". What follows is yet another example.

The Chinese system of writing is based on 214 signs, or “roots”. These 214 roots are combined to produce between 30,000 and 50,000 characters. Many missionaries who have had to learn the Chinese language have understandably met with great difficulty. However, one day certain missionary was studying the Chinese character for the word "righteous". The missionary noticed that the character is made up of three symbols which form two distinct parts, an upper and lower portion.



The upper portion consists of the Chinese symbol for a lamb.



The bottom portion is actually made up of two symbols.

The symbol for hand



and the symbol for spear or knife



When these two symbols are used together they form the first person pronoun I.



So in total the word "righteous" consisted of the symbol for the first person pronoun I underneath the symbl of a lamb.



The missionary had made an extraordinary discovery; here, hidden within the complex Chinese writing system was the heart of the Gospel:

I under the Lamb am righteous!

The Chinese were baffled when their attention was drawn to this hidden message. They had never noticed it before, but now they saw it very clearly. From that point forward missionaries would point out this message hidden within the Chinese’s very own writing system and ask them, "Under which lamb do we have to stand in order to be righteous and just?" When the Chinese could not provide an answer the missionaries would joyfully tell them about the "the Lamb which was slain" Rev. 5:12, the same "Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world" John 1:29, none other than The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, God does not leave Himself without a witness! Acts 14:17

Note: It is very interesting that the symbols used to form the pronoun I are a hand and a spear/knife. Perhaps this points to the sacrifice which was required of this Lamb in order for us to be made righteous. In addition to that, this could also point to the fact that this Lamb would be pierced. Psalms 22:16, Zec 12:10, John 19:34, Rev. 1:7. There is no limit to the lengths our Father has gone to, to gather us back into His arms. We truly serve an Amazing God!

Taken from Don Richardson's book: Eternity In Thier Hearts

Lessons Learned

In the previous post we discussed how Jacob assumed the identity of his brother Esau to receive the blessing from his father. While this gives us an example of how we approach our Father by assuming the identity of Christ, there are other important lessons we can learn from this passage about how we should conduct ourselves, or rather how not to conduct ourselves when trusting in the Lord.

A lot of things were done wrong in this story and all participants were at fault: first we will start a few chapters earlier in Genesis 25:29-34 when Esau sold Jacob his birthright for a bowl of beans.

Esau is portrayed in these verses as being emotional: he was fainting and gasping, and then despising. To live on this base level, to satisfy one’s appetites, inevitably leads to a despising of spiritual things.

On this same note, Isaac was attempting to thwart God’s plan by blessing Esau instead of Jacob in chapter 27. Natural senses play a conspicuous part in this part of the story as well. Notice the emphasis placed on Isaac’s love for the taste of wild game and also his sense of touch and smell to try and identify Esau. Our natural senses and the things we desire are always at odds with what God desires for us and more often than not these senses and appetites deceive us just as they did Isaac. We must trust in God and his plan for our well being. We must be careful about what our human senses desire as they almost always led us away from the Lord. Giving in to the physical senses and fleshly appetite is also how Eve was deceived in the garden.

Genesis 3:6
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

Next, Rebekah and Jacob tried to achieve God’s blessing by deception. Their “victory” would ultimately reap hatred and separation in the family; Rebekah never saw Jacob again and vice versa. In a sense Rebekah and Jacob did win, though they gained nothing that God would not have given them anyway; and they ultimately lost much more. Their family life was destroyed, and each had to bear lonely hours of separation, disillusionment, and regret. Rebekah would never see her favorite son again, and Jacob would have to face life without a father, mother, or brother. Their activities accomplished only what God had already ordained. Yet God would work through their conniving. God’s program will triumph, often in spite of human activities. However if we remove these human interventions, God’s plan will work without all the heartache and difficulty that occurs when we are impatient and try to assist Him or hurry Him along. We must realize that God does not need our help, and whenever we try to intervene, we always cause problems that would not have arisen had we simply been patient and trusted in Him to act. The saying that “God helps those who help themselves” IS NOT in the Bible. What the Bible does continually instruct us to do however is to “be still” and “wait”. Psalms 145:15 “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.” Other verses that tell us to wait on the Lord include Pslams 25:21, 27:14, 37:7, 37:9, 37:34, 39:7, 52:9, 59:9, 62:5, 104:27, 123:2, 130:5, Isa 8:17, 30:18, 40:31, 49:23, Jer 14:22, Lam 3:25-26, Hosea 12:6, Micah 7:7, Zeph 3:8, Luke 12:36, Acts 1:4, Gal 5:5, 1ST Thes. 1:10 This can be seen in the story of Jacob as well as various other passages including when Abraham fathered a child by Sarah’s maidservant. Sarah and Abraham were not waiting on the Lord to accomplish what He said He would do, they tried to help God bring a son into the world. The problems that arose from this incident have been with us for 6,000 years.

It is also interesting to note that Jacob deceived his father, and throughout Jacob’s life we find that Jacob was deceived by others. He was first deceived by Laban when he was fooled into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Laban’s excuse for this deception was that “It must not be done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.” Genesis 29:26 This must have cut Jacob deeply since in his case the younger had come before the firstborn. Jacob was also deceived by his children when they told him that his beloved son Joseph had been killed by wild beast. Interestingly enough Jacob’s sons used Joseph’s coat to deceive their father, much like Jacob had used to deceive Isaac. Remember Galatians 6:7 says “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Master of Disguise

27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:

27:12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.

27:15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:

27:16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:

27:18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?

27:19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

27:21 And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.

27:22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau.

27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him.

We all know this story from Genesis 27 in which Jacob pretends to be his brother Esau so that his father Isaac will bless him as the firstborn instead of Esau. So what exactly is going on here, and what does it have to do with us. Well let’s look at what Jacob desires and how he goes about obtaining it. Jacob desires his father’s blessing, and even more specifically the blessing of the first born son. Jacob obtains this blessing by pretending to be Isaac’s first born son Esau, using both his name and his raiment. So Jacob comes before his father and assumes the identity of the first born son, in order to receive blessings from his father. This is exactly what we do. We use the name and assume the identity of Christ the Son, in order to receive blessings from our Father. This same concept can be found in 1st Samuel 18:4 where Jonathan places his garments on David. The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. It is ONE book and it’s all about HIM!!!