April 11, 2010
A brief thought came before me as we’ve been thinking of the the Lord’s sufferings this morning. I’d like to look at a phrase in Psalm 22:14. “My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”As He hung there on the cross, could you see His heart? No one could. While under the sacrifice for sins, He suffered inwardly.
We have a picture of this in the Old Testament. Exodus 27:4. In the brazen altar, there was a net, or grate, that was in the middle of the altar. That way, when you looked at the altar, you couldn’t see the animal going through the flame. Similarly, we couldn’t see Christ’s inward sufferings. But God could see them. With the brazen alter, there was a sweet savour that arose to God. When Christ died, there was a sweet savour that arose as well; the sweet savour of His willingness and obedience.
As we remember what the Lord suffered, may we send up a sweet savour of praise to God. May we also realize what a pleasure and delight He was to His Father.
Hymn 90 - Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power
Prayer
I’ve told you about the four sections that I like for this chapter; the Father’s Desire, the Servant’s Diligence, the Bride’s Decision, and the Son’s Devotion. Right now, we’re at the Bride’s Decision.
Decisions are choices. They can be serious, because choices have consequences. We make many small choices every day. However, a man by the name of Charles “Tremendous” Jones said that we make three big choices in life: 1) Who will I spend my life for? 2) Who will I spend my life with? and 3) What will I spend my life doing? In our story, Rebekah is making choice number two.
Genesis 24:54. Now that the servant has done his job and found the bride, he wants to go home. Vv.55 - 58. This is a yes or no question. She could have said, “Later”; but that really means “No for right now”. But Rebekah doesn’t say no. She says yes. She seems almost as anxious to leave as the servant. Why? She’s leaving her home, her father, her mother, her siblings; why does she want to leave? I think it’s because she was in love with a young man. It’s amazing what love will do. It’s good when we have that sort of love for the Lord Jesus.
Vv. 59-61. So they left, and it says that she “followed the man”. For us, that’s the Holy Spirit. We need to be following his lead.
In chapter 10, we saw the covenant that the remnant of the Children of Israel made with God. Much of what they committed to was already in the law. We saw how they promised to dedicate much to God; We are bought with a price and this dedication of their firstfruits and first-born reminds us of the claims the Lord has on our lives. If we look back to Exodus 13, we’ll find that God claims what He redeems, and that is certainly the case with us.
Read Colossians 1:13 - 18. When talking about the Lord as God’s first-born, it’s important to remember that He is eternal and was never born. He is in the position of the first-born as the leader. When Christ rose from the dead, he became the first fruits; then, many more followed out of that resurrection. We are a part of that. This is why He should have that pre-eminent place in our lives; we should give Him what He deserves.
V. 37: The corn, wine (grapes), and oil were each harvested at a different time of year. There were only three feasts that the Jews were required to come to Jerusalem for, and these feasts revolved around these three harvests.
Now that they have made the covenant they organize where the members of this remnant will be distributed, ch. 11. Jerusalem became the capital city, and those who didn’t stay there lived in one of the surrounding cities.
Hymn 330 - A message came from Heaven
Prayer