Last week we learned about Abraham fathering Isaac, the ‘promised son’. Isaac had Esau and Jacob, later God renaming Jacob Israel. Israel had 12 sons. We listed those sons according to their Mothers and surrogate Mothers.
This week we are going onward to learn how these families became related to us today as Christians. We will learn how we not only became the family of God, but the people of God, related to the Jews in the bible.
God told Abraham He would make him a great nation, that there would be many numbered in his family from then on.
Turn to Matthew 1:17; “So are the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations;” Here we see King David, ruler over the ISRAEL-ites, is related to Abraham, meaning all the people born between them are Abrahams’ legacy, his family.
Turn to 2 Samuel 7:12. Here God is promising David something; “and when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his Kingdom.” And verse 16 “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.”
God promised David his throne would be established forever, meaning one of his sons would sit on his throne forever. Forever is a long time, isn’t it? How can a human have rule forever when there is eternity to consider?
Turn back to Matthew 1:17 “and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations.”
So here we see David is related to Jesus. In Psalm 110:1&4 David fortold these words; verse 1“The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Verse 4 “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Melchizadek and Jesus were both of the Tribe [or son] of Levi, Leah being his Mother. The Tribe of Levi God set aside as the priests for the Tabernacle we are studying on Wednesday nights with Bro. Doug. When he speaks of the priests, Bro. Doug is talking about Levi’s family. God was saying there would always be a priest on the throne of David forever, eternity.
In Matthew 22:41-46 Jesus repeated those words of David to the priests, trying to explain He is Christ; “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in the spirit call him Lord, saying The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord’ how is he his son?”
The Jews, which were the Pharisees, a branch of the priests [Tribe of Levi] knew they were promised the Messiah to deliver them. He was called Christ which means “anointed One”. So Jesus was saying ‘here I am. I am of the family of King David, which is of the family of Abraham. I am the anointed One’, but very few believed on Him as the Messiah.
Yet, we believe on Him as the Messiah, the anointed One, the Savior of this world and that made us ‘born’ into the family of God. Accepting Jesus as OUR Savior births us into God’s family.
Turn to Romans 8:17 “And IF children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Here God is telling us IF we accept Christ as our Savior, we become an heir, a child of His. Everything Jesus has, we have, because the bible clearly states we are joint-heirs with Christ. Christ has righteousness [right standing with God], we have righteousness [right standing with God] because of Him, we are joint-heirs!
But this is not all we have. Because we are joint-heirs with Jesus, all Jesus had on this earth, we share as His sisters. So, Abraham was Jesus’ great-great-great [multiple times] Grandfather, Abraham is ours too. So, we are daughters of Abraham because we accepted Jesus and became His sister, we related to him. Everyone that has EVER accepted Jesus as their Savior became a son or daughter of Abraham. This is how God brought about the promise to Abraham of becoming a great nation.
So, anytime we read about the children of Israel, the bible is talking about us! This is spiritually how we are the Israelites. We are the chosen people of God. We are God’s people. God promised King David one of his sons would rule on the throne forever. Through Jesus this has become true. Forever, eternity, Jesus rules as King!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Her New Neighborhood
In our last lesson we learned how God provided a perfect unblemished Lamb for our sin we were born with because of the disobedience of Adam to God, but his obedience to satan and how satan was then the ruler of this world. God provided a blood sacrifice for our sin, and that sacrifice was Jesus, His only Son. When we accept what Jesus did on the cross, His blood for our sin, and we became whole and righteous because we traded places with Jesus and received HIS wholeness and HIS righteousness.
This week God wants us to learn more about His family we were ‘born’ into when we were ‘born again’ in the spirit into His Kingdom. We are born into the family of God. But God wants us to see in His word where He says this, so we know the truth and can always find it in our bible when satan tries to lie to us and tell us we are not in God’s family.
In one of our lessons God told us about Abraham and how He told him he would make him a great nation. This meant Abraham would have many in his family from then on. But somehow, Sarah being barren, God made this promise to Abraham, knowing it would take trust in Him to bring it to pass.
The custom of the day was if a Woman was barren, she could have a child through her handmaiden and call the child hers. This is using the handmaiden as we would call in our day as a surrogate Mother. So, they did so, but Sarah became jealous of the woman and child and threw them out of the home. But God had compassion on the woman and child and took care of them.
It took 20 years for the promise of a son God made to Abraham to come to pass and Isaac was born. Isaac was called all through the bible ‘the promise, or the promised son’. Isaac is the person they are referring to.
Isaac grew up, married a woman name Rebekah and had twin sons; Esau and Jacob, Esau being the firstborn. Esau gave his birthright to Jacob and Jacob also deceived his Father to bless him instead of his brother Esau, the eldest. The name Jacob means ‘deceiver’. Upon Esau finding out his brother tricked their Father, he hunted Jacob down in anger but Jacob left the family, going back to their Father’s homeland.
When Jacob made it to that land, he met a woman named Rachel and her sister Leah. He worked 7 years for Rachel’s Father to win her hand in marriage but her Father deceived him into marrying her sister Leah instead. Jacob worked another 7 years to have Rachel, the wife he truly loved and wanted.
Jacob had several children with Leah and her handmaiden and several with Rachel and her handmaiden. In total he had 12 sons. Jacob later left this place also with his two Wives and children. On his trip he came to a place to camp for the night. He sent them just ahead and camped alone.
An angel of God came to him and they wrestled. Jacob said he would not let him go until he blessed him. The angel asked him his name; answering him ‘Jacob’ the angel told him ‘his name would no longer be Jacob but Israel’. Read aloud Genesis 32:22-30.
Now let’s recap all these families so we can learn who belongs to whom. If you can remember from our lesson today, fill in the blank. If not, look up the verse listed.
Abraham & Sarah ------- Isaac (read Genesis 17:19)
Isaac & Rachel------- Esau (Genesis 25:25)
Jacob {later changed to Israel} (Genesis 25:26)
Israel & Leah -----fill in blanks below
Israel & Rachel ----- fill in blanks below
Let’s go to Genesis 30 to find the names of Israel’s 12 sons. These are the twelve tribes of Israel the bible talks about, and the study we are doing on Wednesday nights with Bro. Doug. They each camped in particular places with their families around the tabernacle, calling their tribe by the son’s name.
Leah’s children: fill in
Rachel’s children: fill in
This week God wants us to learn more about His family we were ‘born’ into when we were ‘born again’ in the spirit into His Kingdom. We are born into the family of God. But God wants us to see in His word where He says this, so we know the truth and can always find it in our bible when satan tries to lie to us and tell us we are not in God’s family.
In one of our lessons God told us about Abraham and how He told him he would make him a great nation. This meant Abraham would have many in his family from then on. But somehow, Sarah being barren, God made this promise to Abraham, knowing it would take trust in Him to bring it to pass.
The custom of the day was if a Woman was barren, she could have a child through her handmaiden and call the child hers. This is using the handmaiden as we would call in our day as a surrogate Mother. So, they did so, but Sarah became jealous of the woman and child and threw them out of the home. But God had compassion on the woman and child and took care of them.
It took 20 years for the promise of a son God made to Abraham to come to pass and Isaac was born. Isaac was called all through the bible ‘the promise, or the promised son’. Isaac is the person they are referring to.
Isaac grew up, married a woman name Rebekah and had twin sons; Esau and Jacob, Esau being the firstborn. Esau gave his birthright to Jacob and Jacob also deceived his Father to bless him instead of his brother Esau, the eldest. The name Jacob means ‘deceiver’. Upon Esau finding out his brother tricked their Father, he hunted Jacob down in anger but Jacob left the family, going back to their Father’s homeland.
When Jacob made it to that land, he met a woman named Rachel and her sister Leah. He worked 7 years for Rachel’s Father to win her hand in marriage but her Father deceived him into marrying her sister Leah instead. Jacob worked another 7 years to have Rachel, the wife he truly loved and wanted.
Jacob had several children with Leah and her handmaiden and several with Rachel and her handmaiden. In total he had 12 sons. Jacob later left this place also with his two Wives and children. On his trip he came to a place to camp for the night. He sent them just ahead and camped alone.
An angel of God came to him and they wrestled. Jacob said he would not let him go until he blessed him. The angel asked him his name; answering him ‘Jacob’ the angel told him ‘his name would no longer be Jacob but Israel’. Read aloud Genesis 32:22-30.
Now let’s recap all these families so we can learn who belongs to whom. If you can remember from our lesson today, fill in the blank. If not, look up the verse listed.
Abraham & Sarah ------- Isaac (read Genesis 17:19)
Isaac & Rachel------- Esau (Genesis 25:25)
Jacob {later changed to Israel} (Genesis 25:26)
Israel & Leah -----fill in blanks below
Israel & Rachel ----- fill in blanks below
Let’s go to Genesis 30 to find the names of Israel’s 12 sons. These are the twelve tribes of Israel the bible talks about, and the study we are doing on Wednesday nights with Bro. Doug. They each camped in particular places with their families around the tabernacle, calling their tribe by the son’s name.
Leah’s children: fill in
Rachel’s children: fill in
Monday, March 21, 2011
Why She Needed to move
Last week we studied why the new girl needed to move, she was born into a sinful world. It’s not necessarily any sin she committed, sin came into the world when Adam obeyed satan and ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, therefore disobeying God. In disobeying God, he obeyed satan, and Adam became his slave and all God had given him then went under the rule of satan.
Today we are going to look at the way God provided for our sin to be forgiven and what some of that means for us today.
Along the course of time, God visited many on the earth. He has been ever mindful of us as humans that He so lovingly created. There was a set time God declared for Himself ‘a people’, a group of people that He began to call His own. He wanted to begin the process of bringing everyone back into union with Him as He once had with Adam. In starting this process He exclaimed blood had to be shed for sins to be forgiven. This set time God declared is when those He had visited, namely Abraham, was moved into Egypt due to a great famine in the land. Abraham and his kin folk moved into Egypt and multiplied and grew. There were many of them, nearly 2 Million. God had made a promise to Abraham that his seed [children] would be as many as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore. We see here that that promise had been set in motion.
God then began the process of calling His people in by birthing a boy that was born of a Hebrew woman, named Moses, to be raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and learning the ways of Egypt. Pharaoh’s daughter raised him knowing he was a Hebrew. The Hebrews had grown in number that the Pharaoh, which was the ruler, began to use them as slaves. One day, as an adult, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. His anger was stirred and he beat the Egyptian to death, though not meaning to. He then, shortly after, saw two men fighting and warned them. They spoke against him saying ‘are you going to kill us as you did the other?’. Moses then fled, feeling he would surely be punished.
For 40 years did Moses live in the wilderness tending sheep. He had married, and had a family. God spoke to Moses to go help His people, the Hebrews, come out of Egypt. This is the story of the 10 plagues, the last plagues being the killing of the first born. God instructed all the Hebrews to slay a lamb, dip some straw into the blood and place it over their doorpost, therefore the Death Angel when coming through the town would pass over them and their firstborn son would be saved. God was giving this to them as an example of blood saving their lives.
When the Hebrews came out of Egypt they stayed in the wilderness, and God gave them a plan. He told them that from that day forward, even until today, He would not leave them. And to remit their sins, they were to slay a certain perfect, unblemished animal and pour his blood onto the alter before Him. He also gave them 10 main laws to go by, this being what is called today, the 10 commandments. He also gave them certain guidelines to go by to be purified, ways to stay away from uncleanness and so on. These were called laws. The people lived by those laws for many, many years. But there was always blood that had to be shed for their sins.
Fast forward to Jesus. The Hebrews lived in the days of Jesus in this same manner, slaying perfect, unblemished animals for their sin. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world, those that had passed, those that were alive in His day, and those that were still yet to be born.
Jesus was born of a virgin girl, named Mary. The Holy Spirit hovered over her and conceived Jesus. This is why He is called the Son of Man, because Mary was His Mother, and the Son of God, because God was His Father.
Jesus grew up just like us. At one point Jesus was 13, just like you Morgan. At one point in His life He was 16, just like you Charlie. Jesus lived among His brothers and sisters too. He grew up in a small town much like Bradford, though there were not any trains back then. Lol.
Jesus grew up learning the scriptures much like we are. He was reading and learning the verses by memory from what is called the old testament in our Bible. So when we read in Isaiah, those are scriptures Jesus read too. Isn’t that neat?
Yet Jesus grew up never sinning. He was tempted just like we were to sin, yet He never sinned. Therefore, as God began to move Him toward the cross, He was called the Lamb of God because He was unblemished and God’s provision for blood for forgiveness of our sin, the sin we were born with, and the sin we may commit daily. God provided the spotless Lamb to be slain for US. THIS is why we praise God so much, He provided Jesus, and Jesus was willing, to be our sacrifice for our sin. That’s the scripture in John 3:16 we all know so well but tells us the truth “for God so loved us {Morgan, Charlie and Cindy, and the rest of the World} that He gave His only begotten Son {Jesus} that whosoever believeth on Him will not perish [go to hell and live forever and ever and ever} but will have everlasting life {go to Heaven and live forever and ever and ever}.
God provided Jesus as it says in our scripture from last week Romans 5:19 “for as by one man’s disobedience {Adam} many were made sinners {us and the rest of the world}, so by the obedience of one {Jesus} shall many be made righteous {right standing before God}”. This is so much to praise God for. This is so much to praise Jesus for. We were going to have to pay for the sin, but Jesus paid for it on the cross for us. And God is the one that provided that sacrifice of blood.
John 3:16 again say “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
Forgiveness of the sin we were born with is to believe in Jesus. There it is, that simple. Accepting what Jesus did, trading places with Him, inviting Him to live in our hearts and guide us, brings us into The Kingdom of God, with Jesus The King of this kingdom. It’s what Jesus did. It’s the sacrifice Jesus made. It was His blood as the sacrifice for sin.
Today we are going to look at the way God provided for our sin to be forgiven and what some of that means for us today.
Along the course of time, God visited many on the earth. He has been ever mindful of us as humans that He so lovingly created. There was a set time God declared for Himself ‘a people’, a group of people that He began to call His own. He wanted to begin the process of bringing everyone back into union with Him as He once had with Adam. In starting this process He exclaimed blood had to be shed for sins to be forgiven. This set time God declared is when those He had visited, namely Abraham, was moved into Egypt due to a great famine in the land. Abraham and his kin folk moved into Egypt and multiplied and grew. There were many of them, nearly 2 Million. God had made a promise to Abraham that his seed [children] would be as many as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore. We see here that that promise had been set in motion.
God then began the process of calling His people in by birthing a boy that was born of a Hebrew woman, named Moses, to be raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and learning the ways of Egypt. Pharaoh’s daughter raised him knowing he was a Hebrew. The Hebrews had grown in number that the Pharaoh, which was the ruler, began to use them as slaves. One day, as an adult, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. His anger was stirred and he beat the Egyptian to death, though not meaning to. He then, shortly after, saw two men fighting and warned them. They spoke against him saying ‘are you going to kill us as you did the other?’. Moses then fled, feeling he would surely be punished.
For 40 years did Moses live in the wilderness tending sheep. He had married, and had a family. God spoke to Moses to go help His people, the Hebrews, come out of Egypt. This is the story of the 10 plagues, the last plagues being the killing of the first born. God instructed all the Hebrews to slay a lamb, dip some straw into the blood and place it over their doorpost, therefore the Death Angel when coming through the town would pass over them and their firstborn son would be saved. God was giving this to them as an example of blood saving their lives.
When the Hebrews came out of Egypt they stayed in the wilderness, and God gave them a plan. He told them that from that day forward, even until today, He would not leave them. And to remit their sins, they were to slay a certain perfect, unblemished animal and pour his blood onto the alter before Him. He also gave them 10 main laws to go by, this being what is called today, the 10 commandments. He also gave them certain guidelines to go by to be purified, ways to stay away from uncleanness and so on. These were called laws. The people lived by those laws for many, many years. But there was always blood that had to be shed for their sins.
Fast forward to Jesus. The Hebrews lived in the days of Jesus in this same manner, slaying perfect, unblemished animals for their sin. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world, those that had passed, those that were alive in His day, and those that were still yet to be born.
Jesus was born of a virgin girl, named Mary. The Holy Spirit hovered over her and conceived Jesus. This is why He is called the Son of Man, because Mary was His Mother, and the Son of God, because God was His Father.
Jesus grew up just like us. At one point Jesus was 13, just like you Morgan. At one point in His life He was 16, just like you Charlie. Jesus lived among His brothers and sisters too. He grew up in a small town much like Bradford, though there were not any trains back then. Lol.
Jesus grew up learning the scriptures much like we are. He was reading and learning the verses by memory from what is called the old testament in our Bible. So when we read in Isaiah, those are scriptures Jesus read too. Isn’t that neat?
Yet Jesus grew up never sinning. He was tempted just like we were to sin, yet He never sinned. Therefore, as God began to move Him toward the cross, He was called the Lamb of God because He was unblemished and God’s provision for blood for forgiveness of our sin, the sin we were born with, and the sin we may commit daily. God provided the spotless Lamb to be slain for US. THIS is why we praise God so much, He provided Jesus, and Jesus was willing, to be our sacrifice for our sin. That’s the scripture in John 3:16 we all know so well but tells us the truth “for God so loved us {Morgan, Charlie and Cindy, and the rest of the World} that He gave His only begotten Son {Jesus} that whosoever believeth on Him will not perish [go to hell and live forever and ever and ever} but will have everlasting life {go to Heaven and live forever and ever and ever}.
God provided Jesus as it says in our scripture from last week Romans 5:19 “for as by one man’s disobedience {Adam} many were made sinners {us and the rest of the world}, so by the obedience of one {Jesus} shall many be made righteous {right standing before God}”. This is so much to praise God for. This is so much to praise Jesus for. We were going to have to pay for the sin, but Jesus paid for it on the cross for us. And God is the one that provided that sacrifice of blood.
John 3:16 again say “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
Forgiveness of the sin we were born with is to believe in Jesus. There it is, that simple. Accepting what Jesus did, trading places with Him, inviting Him to live in our hearts and guide us, brings us into The Kingdom of God, with Jesus The King of this kingdom. It’s what Jesus did. It’s the sacrifice Jesus made. It was His blood as the sacrifice for sin.
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