In reality, they aren’t merely a sayings, they are lies.

You see this image? That’s you and I on the right.

We stand judged and condemned before a Holy God. Jesus is in our shoes, if you are a believer. Jesus is taking what rightfully belongs to us: death. That ultimate penalty for our sins is placed upon Him. The wrath of God is placed upon Him while we are made righteous.

That is reality.

If that doesn’t strike you, what about Jesus’ own words:

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am (He), you will die in your sins.” –John 8:24.

When Jesus says “I am,” He is calling Himself God. The “He” was added by the translators because of our English grammatical usage. Jesus is saying “I AM WHO I AM” as found in Exodus 3:14, the voice from the burning bush. It’s the same phrase He uses in John 6:20 and John 18:6.

You have a choice: face the wrath of God or believe that Jesus is who He says He is.

There’s only one way to heaven, friend. No matter how “good” you think you are, Jesus is the only way. We will all face our Creator one day. You are either going to stand condemned or righteous.

If you are not yet a believer, how does John 8:24 strike you?

May He Increase!

I think a lot of us know that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, but I don’t think we really ask why.

Origins In Genesis

If we start with Genesis, we find a somewhat familiar passage right after Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden. God is handing out judgments and He is starting with Satan. The key verse we want to focus on is:

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

When we think of “seed,” we commonly associate this to the male species. Here, God is associating to the woman which is in anticipation of the virgin birth.

From this point on, Satan goes to work doing everything he can to corrupt this “seed.” Here’s a short list of some of the things he tries to spoil the seed:

• He causes Cain to murder his brother Abel (Genesis 4)
• He causes his fallen angels to corrupt the bloodlines of many generations that precipitate the flood (Genesis 6)
• He causes the tower of Babel to be built (Genesis 11)
• He causes Abram and Sarai to have Ishmael by Hagar (Genesis 16)
• He causes the rise of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19)
• He causes Joseph’s brothers to deal treacherously with him (Genesis 37)
• He causes the illicit affair between Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)
• He causes Aaron to make the golden calf and the resulting worship (Exodus 32)
• He causes David to commit adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)

There are many more examples, but let’s jump ahead to the event that probably caused Satan to rejoice.

King Jehoiachin (Coniah)

All through the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, we read of Israel’s many failures and departures from worshipping God and turning to idol worship. Things would get better but then go right back to mire. There would be good kings, and then bad ones. The northern and southern kingdoms would seeming go from bad to worse.

God finally has enough and so with king Jehoiachin He pronounces a blood curse upon him.

“Thus says the LORD, ‘write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.’” –Jeremiah 22:30.

With this proclamation, Satan thinks he finally has succeeded in undermining God’s plan of redemption through David’s bloodline. It was announced by God that the Messiah would come from David’s line, but now Satan thinks that the plan has been ruined by his doing.

Joseph

So if we turn to Matthew now, we run across king Jehoiachin in Jesus’ genealogy.

Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. –Matthew 1:11-12.

Here, Jeconiah is another spelling of Jehoiachin. The genealogy continues and we’ll pick it up in verse 16:

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. –Matthew 1:16.

Remember, Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. If he were, then the blood curse that God pronounced on the lineage of David would apply to Jesus! No, Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, thus fulfilling the specifications that the Messiah was a descendant of David.

Something also peculiar that you might gloss over. In Luke 3, there is a little verse that has significant implications.

When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli. –Luke 3:23.

Did you pick up on that? In Matthew 1:16, it says that Joseph’s father was Jacob. Here in Luke, it makes it sound like there is a contradiction by saying “Joseph, the son of Eli.”

Who is Eli?

Eli is Mary’s father! In other words, Joseph is Jacob’s son by birth, and Eli’s son (in-law) by marriage to Mary. In order to really get at what is going on here, we need to dig back into the Old Testament to the book of Numbers.

The Daughters of Zelophehad

I won’t get into all the scriptures here, but will provide them in a moment. Basically what happened is that Zelophehad did not have any sons, only daughters. In ancient Israel, inheritance would typically go to sons. After Zelophehad had died, his five daughters came to Moses asking him what would happen to their father’s property who died without sons?

Moses then took the question directly to God who made a very particular exemption. However, this exemption was absolutely critical to the coming of the Messiah that we don’t appreciate the implications until we get to Jesus’ birth! God anticipated this detail a thousand years before Jesus’ birth!

If you want to dig into the background, check out these passages:

• Numbers 26:33
• Numbers 27:1-11
• Numbers 36:2-12
• Joshua 17:3-6
• 1 Chronicles 7:15

Merry Christmas 2010!

On behalf of the Chavez family, I wish each of you a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with God’s love, grace, and mercy.

May He Increase!

Tuesday: 12th of Nisan 32 A.D.

On this day, Jesus entered the Temple to teach the people. The chief priests and the elders came to Jesus during His teaching to question His authority.

It’s a vivid picture of proving Christ’s authority and who He is. Again, I’m indebted to my brother Jeff Musgrave of Jeofurry’s Jesus Journey for providing yet another great insight into what’s going on during this scene in the Temple:

At Passover every year, the lambs were brought into the city a few days before they were to be slaughtered. They were then watched and inspected for four days to insure that there was no blemish or fault. Exodus 12:3-6 is part of the biblical basis for this. In any case, Jesus entered the city on the same day as the lambs and during this time was “inspected” by the chief priests and authorities to find if there was any fault. Of course, there was no fault found. He was inadvertently (on their part anyway) certified blameless as the Passover Lamb of God.

The takeaway here is to remember that Jesus is qualified, blameless, pure, and without blemish or spot. Indeed, He alone was worthy to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world.

If you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, do it now. Call upon Him, turn away from sin and repent. Now is the acceptable time! Don’t put it off for another moment.

May He Increase!

One these jumped out at me in Exodus. I was surprised that I didn’t underline this or note it before.

In chapter 4, we read about God’s calling of Moses, his initial objections, and then his response to the call. There are a few verses tucked in there that you may miss if you are not reading carefully. I was guilty of this before and they hit me today.

Right after God tells Moses what He wants Moses to say to Pharaoh, we read:

Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. –Exodus 4:24.

What! Wait a second . . . I just thought that God told Moses what He wanted him to say to Pharaoh. Now He wants to kill him? What made God so angry that He wants to kill him now?

Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” So He let him alone. –Exodus 4:25-26.

Still confused?

Apparently, Moses had not circumcised his son, in violation of God’s commandment.

“But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” –Genesis 17:14.

What you need to understand is that God cannot use Moses to free His people if Moses is in violation of God’s direct commandment. God could have found someone else to do the job. But Zipporah–Moses’ wife–stepped into the role that Moses should have been in and circumcised their son in order to spare Moses’ life!

What’s the lesson? God says what He means, and He means what He says. If God commands you to do something then you do it. There is no other path.

Moses was God’s chosen deliverer for Israel and yet He was willing to take Moses’ life from him because at that moment, Moses was in violation of God’s commandment. In other words, direct disobedience to God’s law is a serious matter. You do not refuse to do what God tells you to do in His Word.

This passage was a wake-up call to me. What about you?

May He Increase!

Another example of this is found in the books of Exodus and Numbers.

In Exodus, the people of Israel complained to Moses that there was no water to drink as they traveled through the desert. So after Moses prays to God “a little more and they will stone me,” (Exodus 17:4) God tells Moses:

“Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” –Exodus 17:5-6.

It’s such a perfect picture fulfilled by Christ. What happened at Jesus’ trial and crucifixion? He was struck and most notably, His side was pierced and blood and water flowed from His side. From that wound, the Church flowed from His side. Just as the Israelites lived by drinking water from the rock in the desert, we live in a spiritual and eternal sense from the struck rock that is Jesus.

But then something odd happens later in Numbers.

The people complained again about there being no water. Moses prays to God and God answers him:

“Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” –Numbers 20:8.

What is different this time? God tells Moses to “speak to the rock.” Why? Because the rock (Christ) was already struck (died) once. There is no need to strike (re-sacrifice) Jesus again. The atoning work of Christ at the cross is done!

Is it time for you to speak to The Rock and ask for forgiveness of your sin?

Or are you already a Christian and you need to confess your sin, with the assurance that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us? (1 John 1:9).

May He Increase!