psalm 103... an Easter perspective... part six...

Returning to Psalm 103... exploring God's Word... from this side of the cross...

He made known his ways to Moses,

his deeds to the people of Israel...

Psalm 103:7

God made known His ways to Moses...

He made known His law... through Moses...

The Hebrew word for law... is torah...

In addition to meaning law... it also means...

...manner, custom, i.e., the usual way of doing something...

---Dictionary of Biblical Languages

The law revealed through Moses...
is God's Way...
a way of love... and... holiness...

Jesus... He came to fulfill the law...
not to negate it... but to complete it...

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;

I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ..." --- Jesus

Matthew 5:17 ESV

The Greek for fulfill... means... to give the true or complete meaning to something... (Louw Nida)

Jesus came to show us how to live within the law...

He lived the Mosaic Law perfectly... sinlessly...

He showed us the heart of God's Way...

He made known His ways to Moses...

Moses saw the law...

Moses knew Jesus...

"... For if you believed Moses, you would believe me;

for he wrote of me. ..." --- Jesus

John 6:1 ESV

Moses wrote the law...

he recorded God's Word...

Jesus is that Word made flesh...

"The Lord  your God will raise up for you a prophet like me

from among you, from your brothers ---

it is to him you shall listen..."

Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV

He made known His deeds...

to the people of Israel...

The Exodus... His deeds of salvation...

ten plagues...

a sea parted...

armies defeated...

a promised land given...

God went to great lengths to reveal His deeds...

His Son... 

to the Israelites...

The tenth plague... the death of the firstborn son...

was the deed culminating in their freedom from slavery...

The Israelites escaped the plague...

by following His instructions...

the instructions of the Passover Feast...

A perfect lamb... sacrificed... roasted... eaten...

his blood on the door frame...

protected them from the plague...

Jesus... The Lamb of God...

saves us from sin... and death...

Jesus... had a band of twelve Israelites...

to whom He walked with for three years...

displaying His wonderful deeds...

forgiving...

healing...

resurrecting...

The greatest deed...

His death...

His resurrection...

revealed first to the Israelites...

the earliest Believers...

the first Christians...

Yes... He made known His ways to Moses...

His deeds to the people of Israel...

Praise God... He made room for all to follow...

Father God... thank You for making Your ways known...

Thank You for preserving them in Your Word...

Thank You for Jesus... whom the whole Law and the Prophets reveal...

Then [Jesus] said to them,

"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,

that everything written about me in the Law of Moses

and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."

Luke 24:44 ESV

eight days...

Eight days... till Christmas... is anticipation rising...?
Today... for me... it is...

This evening... I'm unwrapping an early Christmas present... a friend and I gifted one another with tickets... to a musical rendition of the Christmas story... Behold the Lamb of God...

Waking this morning... asking Him who He is today in these twenty-five days... I hear Him say... The Lamb...

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

John 1:29 ESV

Going back to Genesis... we get our first glimpse... of the Lamb...

Abraham... asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac... 

the son of promise...

lay his life down... as an offering...

This father of the faithful... obeyed... traveling three days to Mount Moriah... three days... contemplating the death of his beloved-long-waited-for son... by his own hand...

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac

his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went

both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham,

"My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "Behold,

the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt

offering, my son." So they both went together.

Genesis 22:6-8 ESV

And He did provide...

a ram caught in a thicket...

a substitute to take Isaac's place...

Behold... the Lamb of God...

In Exodus... we see the Lamb in the Passover...

the final step to freedom from slavery...

for the Israelites oppressed in Egypt...

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

"This month shall be for you the beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day

of this month every man shall take a lamb according to

their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the

household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest

neighbor shall take according to the number of persons;

according to what each can eat you shall make your count

for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish,

a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or

from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day

of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation

shall kill their lambs at twilight.

"Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on

the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which

they eat it. ... In this manner you shall eat it:

with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet,

and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land

of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the

land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods

of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood

shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. 

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague

will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. ..."

Exodus 12:1-7, 11-13 ESV

The lamb sacrificed... eaten...

its blood a covering from judgment...

Behold... the Lamb of God...

And John the Baptizer...

who made the way...

saw Him first...

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

John 1:29 ESV

Behold... it means to see... gaze upon...

In this season... for me... with the daily practice of Examen... Communion... and the writing of the Twenty-five Days... I feel this word... Behold...

Beholding Him each day...

in prayer... Word... bread and wine...

His Body broken...

His blood poured out...

a substitute sacrifice...

the covering of His blood...

salvation from judgment...

for me...

for you...

Behold... the Lamb of God...

Do you see Him...? have you gazed upon Him...?

Contemplate Him... in these single-digit days... til Christmas...

Lord... prepare my heart to behold...

to see You... remember You... gaze upon You...

each day...