The prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation. They sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow [them]. It was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you.
But for you! Think carefully about that statement. Dare to believe! But for you- Imagine the feeling any Israelite felt when he finally stood, with his people, on the other side of the Red Sea. I think God was excited. Just as He promised Abram that a great nation would spring from his very loins, and, a little later gave him a new name, Abraham, which extended God’s promise, in that Abraham would not only be the father of the great nation of Israel but would someday be the father of many nations along with Israel. All born of the same convent given to a man named Abram. The covenant you are in.
When the sun had gone down and a [thick] darkness had come on, behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates—the land of 19 The Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 The Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 The Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Of course a scripture such as this is, like all of the old testament, ‘hooked’ towards the appearing of the Christ. Three things we know; One: When two people such as two Kings formed a Covenant with each other in this way they both had to pass through the covenant pieces to make the covenant official. Two: Abram never passed through the pieces! He only watched the completion of the convent, that’s all he did. Three: He (while in a horror of a deep sleep) witnessed the smoking oven and a flaming torch passing through the pieces fulfilling the Covenant requirements. God with God! The Son of God was a substitute for Abram. God never fails a covenant He makes with Himself, So God made his covenant with Abraham on that day (which includes the further becoming born again nations). Which includes You. Christ substituted Himself for us. God in Covenant with Himself, for Christ was part of Jesus. He never lets Himself down.We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham by faith . We are included in this Covenant Israel will be born again (a remnant perhaps) to join the born again church as ‘ one new man in Christ’. Then in Isaiah 53 we hear these words: (I have separated the thoughts to make it easier to read).
Isaiah 53 WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
It finally happens! The most important event in history- and one foretold for those of His who would know their Father’s voice and respond to the call.! The birth pains of Jesus unto His death and resurrection begins the birth of Abraham’s ‘Many Nations. It begins the marriage of God’s son to His children. Promised children. Not random children but known by name before the foundation of the world and promised by God Himself. He would not turn any away but rather He gathers His children- human? Yes, for now, but possessing a glorious future beyond description! Jesus… the things He endured. I watched ‘The Passion of the Christ’ recently again. You should too. Very hard to watch. Dark and slow. Taking it’s time to make sure you realize what kind of death He suffered. But a birth! The worst Satan can do backfires. It opens the door of his end… But at a high price. God’s only Son’s blood-
SING, O barren one, you who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child! For the [spiritual] children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married wife, says the Lord.
Us. the promised children- LOVE you all in Christ-
mcfalger 