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Luke 24:44-45, Matthew 12:40, Deuteronomy 18:15

Jesus and a burning heart!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 24, 2022

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus met Cleopas and another disciple and explained to them in Luke 24:44-45 that, everything written about him “in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” I’ve often thought how great that would have been to have been able to hear what Jesus had to say and have my mind opened to understand the Old Testament like that. But there are references enough from Jesus and the writers of the New Testament to know that Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection will be the most significant themes he discussed. Warren Gage argues, “The third day passages are widely distributed throughout Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Writings), a distribution which satisfies the canonical claim of Jesus. We can therefore be fairly certain that the Emmaus conversation targeted these passages in the Lord’s explanation of the necessity of his suffering prior to his glory.”1

Is it really an appropriate hermeneutic (approach to interpreting the Bible) to understand the Old Testament as being primarily the message of God’s promised deliverance of man from the Sin that would be ultimately fulfilled in Jesus on the cross? The Bible contains much wisdom for our daily lives in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. There is the history of Israel from Abraham to the birth of Jesus. There are stories about characters who have fascinating life experiences for our benefit but don’t all these things have a more significant meaning? Jesus understood much of all three parts of the Scriptures to be about himself. When the religious leaders asked for a sign from Jesus to prove that he was indeed the Messiah, Jesus told them in Matthew 12:40 there was only one sign that he would give them and he pulled that sign out of the Old Testament and said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Opening the mind to understand the Bible is the see Jesus as the subject of the whole thing! The resurrection of Jonah from the belly of the great fish is about Jesus. When we read Psalm 16 where the writer says that God will not let his anointed one undergo decay, he’s referring to the necessity of Jesus resurrection on the third day. It’s about Jesus. When Moses speaks to the people in Deuteronomy 18:15 saying “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” he is speaking about Jesus. When we see the many, many references about Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures we understand that Jesus is the “Word” from God to us all. Our minds have been opened. We will experience what the two disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced when they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

1 Warren Austin Gage, Milestones to Emmaus: The Third Day Resurrection in the Old Testament (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Warren A. Gage, 2011), 4.

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Joel 2:32, Hosea 6:1-2, Psalm 16:10

Jesus and the Day of the Lord!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 23, 2022

Jesus taught his disciples that it was necessary for him to suffer, be rejected by the religious leaders, to die, be buried and then he would rise again on the third day. That resurrection is not a clear theme in the Old Testament is inaccurate. We see that Hosea made reference to it clearly. Hosea 6:1-2 says, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” There are many other allusions to a “third day” resurrection in the Old Testament as well. It seems that some in Jesus day understood the idea. The religious leaders understood this because they posted guards at Jesus’ tomb to be sure his body didn’t disappear by any means on the third day. They knew this would create a movement furthering the contention that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Cleopas and his friend understood the Old Testament prophecy concerning a third day resurrection also it appears. When they were describing the situation that had taken place in Jerusalem surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus they said, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.” The two disciples on the road to Emmaus said that when Jesus opened their eyes to understand the Scriptures, their hearts burned within them. Later, Jesus appears to the disciples and says, “…everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Jesus interpreted the prophets as being about himself. The Prophet Joel was one that focused on “The Day of the Lord.” He was speaking of the day of Jesus death on the cross where the sins of the world were placed upon the back of the Son of God on the Cross. Joel 2:31 says, The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” Luke and Matthew say pretty much the same thing that Mark says when describing the scene of Jesus’ death on the cross. Mark 15:33 says, “And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” The day of the Lord, according to Joel 2:32, continued and “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”

According to Jewish tradition it appears that the “corruption” of the body takes place by the fourth day. This might help us understand Martha’s argument with Jesus in John 11:38 that Lazarus’ has been dead for “four” days and that corruption has already taken over his body. She told Jesus that by this time his body “stinks.” This might also help us understand why resurrection for the Messiah had to take place on the third day. Even the Psalmist says such in Psalm 16:10. It reads, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Every part of the Old Testament is about Jesus. He’s the complete fulfillment. This is what Gage means when he writes, “All of these events (Old Testament) constituted the Day of the Lord, making the “third day” the eschatological day of the victory of God against his enemies, as foreseen by Moses and the Prophets of Israel.”1

1 Warren Austin Gage, Milestones to Emmaus: The Third Day Resurrection in the Old Testament (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Warren A. Gage, 2011), 4.

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Hosea 6:1-2, Mark 8:31, John 12:24

Resurrection is a fact of life!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 22, 2022

Some Bible Scholars argue that the resurrection of the dead is not a primary biblical theme and is absent in the Old Testament except in allusions at best. N. T. Wright says, “It is all the more surprising, then, to discover that, within the Bible itself, the hope of resurrection makes rare appearances, so rare that some have considered them marginal.”1 According to Gage, “Gordon Fee makes a similar but yet more sweeping rejection of Paul’s claim that the resurrection, especially the ‘third day’ resurrection, was ‘according to the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:3–4). He writes about the ‘difficulty’ of Paul’s claim, boldly saying, ‘… neither the tradition of the third day nor the Resurrection is well attested in the OT …’” (see Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 727).2 One can’t help notice that resurrection, especially on the third day, is explicitly expressed in the Old Testament. Hosea 6:1-2 says, “ “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”

We live with images of a “resurrection” every day of our lives. After a long day we have dinner and settle down in our comfy chairs to enjoy some brief entertainment but within an hour or so both of us have dosed off. One will wake up first and rouse the other to go to bed. We’re tired, and sometimes exhausted, but we know that sleep will restore us and we will rise again refreshed in the morning. It’s interesting that Paul speaks of “sleep” as an allusion to the death of believers. He knows there will be a resurrection. We grow accustomed to this routine and accept it as inevitable. I know there may be a time, now at 75 years of age, when I may not wake up after going to sleep but I’ve been alive long enough to learn the pattern and believe in it. God takes delight in showing us the truth of the idea of resurrection every day of our lives. It happens with food. I get famished and eat and I am restored. I get sick, and with or sometimes without medicine my health is restored. I hurt myself, break an arm, cut my finger, and pretty soon I’m as good as new. We see resurrections every day! Suffering is essential for resurrection. This is what Jesus was trying to get across to his disciples in Mark 8:31 when he “…began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

We also see it in the world all around us. We see it in the going down of the sun followed by its rising the next day. I believe that night came first in the Hebrew schedule of the day. Frequently in Genesis it’s said “It was evening and morning” on each day of creation with evening being mentioned first. Before there can be sun rise there is sunset. In the Jewish calendar days begin at sunset not at sunrise. The seasons show us the death of things with the winter followed by the rebirth or resurrection of all things in the spring and summer. Gage says, “The Creator has made all nature to be filled with images of life emerging abundantly from death. As the Savior taught, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth to die, it remains alone. But if it die, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). The biblical image of this natural rebirth is “resurrection.”2

1 N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003), 85.

2 Warren Austin Gage, Milestones to Emmaus: The Third Day Resurrection in the Old Testament (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Warren A. Gage, 2011), 1.

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Genesis 1:1, John 14:6

Jesus is the truth!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 21, 2022

The philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte understood the central question of all life. The main problem he said is, “there is something rather than nothing.” Maybe it’s the same idea that Descartes had when he said, “I think therefore, I am.” He said it in Latin, “cogito, ergo sum.” We can argue about most things easy enough, but it’s really hard to argue against the reality of my “being.” Neil Diamond sang, “I am I said to no one there And no one heard at all, not even the chair! I am I cried, I am said I and I am lost and I can’t even say why, leavin’ me lonely still.” There is a big problem regarding the source of all life in general and the source of my life specifically however if you come to grips with the first, you’ll resolve the second. It’s the second question that’s the real problem isn’t it? I could ignore the issue of the origin of the universe and all matter but it’s really hard to ignore the question of the origin of mankind. We all would like to know where we came from because we all scream at the universe for an answer.

The Bible is God’s answer to that existential scream regarding our existence. That’s one thing, even the greatest philosophers recognized. God doesn’t fool around with hundreds of pages of dialogue before answering this question for us. He begins his revelation to man with the answer. The first verse in the Bible is that answer. Genesis 1:1 simply says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  One day, students in one of Albert Einstein’s classes were saying they had decided there was no God. Einstein asked them how much of all the knowledge in the world they had among themselves collectively, as a class. The students discussed it for a while and decided they had 5% of all human knowledge among themselves. Einstein thought their estimate was a little generous, but he replied: “Is it possible God exists in the 95% you don’t know?” Phil Donahue turned Madelyn Murray O’hare from an atheist into an agnostic with this thought on his TV show once many, many years ago. You cannot actually claim that there is no God without claiming to possess all the knowledge in the universe. And from every which way you might look at that, it’s ridiculous to make such a claim. Twice in the Psalms we read, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (See Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1).

It just seems that the fact of one’s existence is undeniable. Even if you wished to deny your existence you have to exist to do so. The person who says there is no such thing as absolute truth is simply making a self defeating claim for if there is no absolute truth then that statement is not absolute truth so it’s self defeating. It is a contradiction in and of itself. We spend too much time in life struggling with the problem rather than enjoying our lives. Kierkegaard said, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” He also said, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” I found a blogger on the web that rejects the notion of God yet still understands that the contention that there is no such thing as absolute truth is a self contradictory statement. They write, “Let’s get one thing straight: Contradiction is not deep thinking. It’s make believe. It’s mysticism. It’s a galaxy far far away. It’s not philosophy. It’s not wisdom, and it’s certainly not truth…of any kind.” If atheism is patently ridiculous, our angst is not that there is not a God, but that we don’t know God. The Bible answers this issue also. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

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Genesis 2, Luke 24:27, 32

Jesus gets a Bride!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 20, 2022

God brought all the animals to Adam to name. They came to him “male and female.” Each elephant had it’s sow. Each ram had it’s ewe. Each Lion had it lioness, etc. Mark Twain had a joke where he described Adam coming home to Eve after naming all the animals. Eve looked at an elephant and said, “What did you name that big animal?” Adam replied, “I called it an elephant.” Eve asked, “Why did you call it an elephant?” Adam answered, “Because it looked like an elephant!” That’s a little misleading because all the animals were named before God brought Eve out of Adam’s side. Genesis says, that after Adam had named this animals, male and female, “…for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” Adam did his duty but became acutely aware of the fact that he was alone! God said that it wasn’t good for Adam (Man) to be alone so he put Adam into a deathlike sleep. He opened up Adam’s side and took from his “side.” The normal understanding is that God took out a rib and made woman from that. There is even a old wive’s tale that says that this explains why women have one more rib than men have, but that’s not true. We all have the same amount! Guzik says, “We don’t really know exactly what God took from Adam’s side to make Eve, and it doesn’t really matter. Modern research into cloning and genetic replication shows every cell in our body contains the body’s entire genetic blueprint. God took some of Adam’s cells and changed their genetic blueprint in the creation of Eve.”1

After God put Adam into a deathlike trance (sleep?), “..God pierced his side, creating a bloody wound. …God wounded the man and took out of his side the substance with which he created his bride. Then God healed Adam’s wound and awakened him in the garden. And God brought to Adam the bride who fulfilled all his heart with her beauty and purity.”2 We also know the Bride of Christ comes from the wound made in the side of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Gage describes this well, “Now on the cross God brought upon the new Adam the sleep of death. Although Jesus, like Adam, was innocent, nonetheless God wounded him, permitting his side to be pierced by a Roman spear (John 19:34). God took the substance out of the side of Jesus and created a bride for this new Adam, purchased with blood and washed with water. God then healed Jesus of his wound, and awakened him from the sleep of death in a garden (John 20:15), having given life to his bride, who will one day be presented to him in all the beauty and purity of her new creation in a redeemed garden (Rev 21:2). In other words, the narrative of the creation of Eve through the wounding of Adam proclaims the gospel from the foundations of the world, all in the good purposes of God. After suffering a pierced side, Adam was awakened to the glory of his reward, the bride of his heart’s desire.”2

This may seem like a fanciful way of interpretation but remember what Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:27 tells us , “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Is it really “stretching it” to see Jesus in all of the Scriptures? Gage continues his argument, “Luke tells us that Jesus ‘opened the Scriptures’ to the disciples and that their hearts ‘burned within them’ on the road (Luke 24:32). There! That’s it! We will know we have arrived at our destination when we come to the place where we believe the Scriptures have opened their very meaning up to us, and that our hearts burn within us as we see that the theme of the Old Testament is about the gospel, that all the Hebrew Scriptures are about our precious Savior, his suffering and glory and his third day triumph over death!”2

1 David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 2:21–22.

2 Warren Austin Gage, Milestones to Emmaus: The Third Day Resurrection in the Old Testament (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Warren A. Gage, 2011), 8.

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Isaiah 28:16, 1 Peter 1:19, Matthew 11:28

Jesus is the precious cornerstone!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 19, 2022

Jesus is referred to as a “cornerstone” and in Isaiah we get the idea of a “precious” cornerstone. Isaiah 28:16 says, “…thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: Whoever believes will not be in haste.” There are three titles for Jesus in this passage with a conclusion. Jesus is a tested stone, a precious cornerstone and a sure foundation. Conclusion, who rests the hope on him will not be “let down.” First, Jesus is a “tested stone.” Being “tested” means to have proven true! We often sing in our churches “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” That it’s “tested” means it has proven itself over the long haul. James Boice asks a compelling question of us, “So why don’t we stand on this foundation and build on it? If you wanted to build a house and had a choice between a solid rock and sand for your foundation, wouldn’t you choose the solid rock? If you were investing for your retirement years and had a choice between a proven blue-chip firm and a fly-by-night, over-the-counter adventure, wouldn’t you choose the blue-chip firm? Why, then, should you do differently with your life, which is of far greater value than a house or a bank account? Why should you not build on a foundation that will stand firm when the tempests of life come.1

Jesus is a “precious cornerstone and a sure foundation.” Jesus indeed the “rock of ages.” Stones are sometimes called “precious.” It refers to their desirable nature and worthy. The primary thing that’s “precious” to you and I as believers in Jesus is his blood. 1 Peter 1:19 explains that it wasn’t precious metal or precious gems that redeemed our souls from hell, it was “…with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” When something “appreciates” in value it’s not so much that it was made that much better as the fact that it was viewed differently. I think that’s the way with the “precious” blood of Jesus. MacArthur tells this story: “One of the curators of the museum, a man with great appreciation for art, overheard two men discussing a masterpiece. One man said to the other, ‘I don’t think much of that painting.’ The curator, feeling obliged to reply to the man’s statement, said to him, ‘Dear sir, if I may interrupt, that painting is not on trial; you are. The quality of that painting has already been established. Your disapproval simply demonstrates the frailty of your measuring capability.’ Similarly, Jesus is not on trial before men; men are on trial before Him.”2

When Jesus calls people to himself he says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all of you who weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest.” The invitation is certainly as valid today as it was when Jesus spoke it 2000 years ago. But the certainty of Jesus statement rest solidly on the Old Testament prophecy that Jesus was fulfilling when he issued that call. In just a few verses before the one quoted above, Isaiah 28:12 says, “…to whom he has said, ‘This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose’” That verse then concludes with “yet they would not hear.” When Isaiah said this he was addressing a nation that was searching here and there for alliances with foreign powers to protect them from the Assyrians. Wiersbe says it well, “If they had faith in Jehovah, they would not be rushing here and there, trying to forge alliances, a practice that only leads to shame and failure (Rom. 10:11). A solid rock is better protection than a flimsy covering of lies!3

1 James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 1016.

2 John F. MacArthur Jr., Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 198.

3 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Comforted, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 73–74.

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John 1:3, Colossians 1:16

Jesus is the Creator of All Things

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
January 18, 2022

John explains in the first chapter of his Gospel that Jesus is the creator of all things. John 1:3, says, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” But that’s not the only passage that makes that claim in the Bible. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him (Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

It seems that science has been used to discredit the Christian faith. But a serious look at the created order around us both through a microscope and a telescope should move us to worship its creator. I like David Guzik’s commentary on the Colossians passage. It’s worth looking at. He writes about some of the marvels of creation after stating, “There is no doubt that Jesus is the author of all creation. He Himself is not a created being. When we behold the wonder and the glory of the world Jesus created, we worship and honor Him all the more.” Then he recites some of the marvelous aspects of Jesus’ creation. Let me point out a few of these.

First, Comets have vapor trails up to 10,000 miles long. If you could capture all that vapor, and put it in a bottle, the amount of vapor actually present in the bottle would take up less than 1 cubic inch of space.

Second, Saturn’s rings are 500,000 miles in circumference, but only about a foot thick.

Third: If the sun were the size of a beach ball and put on top of the Empire State Building, the nearest group of stars would be as far away as Australia is to the Empire State Building.

Fourth: The earth travels around the sun about eight times the speed of a bullet fired from a gun.

Fifth: There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.

Sixth: A single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information. How much information is that? If written in ordinary books, in ordinary language, it would take about four thousand volumes.

Seventh: According to Greek scholar A.T. Robertson, all things were created has the idea of “stand created” or “remain created.” Robertson adds: “The permanence of the universe rests, then, on Christ far more than on gravity. It is a Christ-centric universe.”1

1 David Guzik, Colossians, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Col 1:15–20.

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Genesis 9:13

The Battle Bow

Filed Under: Bible Translation by Chuck
January 17, 2022

I am still thinking about my New Year’s resolutions and when things get tough, I always wonder why I bother making them. According to Kathy, I can get grumpy. As I read Genesis 9 I realized that it’s the story of God’s resolution. It Records the Covenant God made with man after the horrific flood which destroyed all life upon the earth. He promised that he would never again destroy all life by a flood. The sign of this promise would be the rainbow which regularly appears in the sky after storms. Rainbows always make us smile!  Genesis 9:13 is one of the all time favorite Bible verses from the book of Genesis. I think of the mark God gave Cain that assured his protection from those who would take vengeance on him. In this passage however God gives us all a “mark” or a sign in the sky that He will never again destroy the earth like he did in the days of Noah. God says, “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Several commentators noticed that the Hebrew word for “bow” refers to the “battle bow” of an archer. This suggests that God put aside his weapon of death and signed a peace treaty with mankind and the earth as a whole.

When God thinks of His resolutions, I don’t think he gets grumpy, do you? I couldn’t help but think of the hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia who lost their lives in the Tsunami (flood?) some time back. I heard that just before the Tsunami hit the oceans receded hundreds of feet leaving fish and shell fish, clams, etc on dry land. Many residents didn’t realize that the huge recession of the waters from the beaches was an ominous sign of something brewing out to sea. They excitedly collected all the seafood they could carry. Many were still gathering it when the wave struck! There was another tsunami this past week (Mid January 2022) near Tonga. The last I heard was “A massive underwater volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash into the atmosphere and triggered a tsunami warning across the Pacific over the weekend. The scope of the damage on the island of Tonga is still unclear.”

Not being in Management, I don’t know why God allowed such a catastrophe. We can but entrust into his hands those who lost their lives. For the rest let’s pray that they, Like Noah and his sons, will indeed see God’s rainbow in some astounding way. And for us, Jesus told us that there would be a judgment day that would come like it did in the days of Noah. I hope I’m not found picking up fish, clams and shellfish when it comes.

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