Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.
Genesis 15:17 (emphasis added)

Covenant, especially in the ancient world, was very serious business. It was two sides agreeing to something. It was so serious, that each side agreed to undergo the punishment if it was broken. That is why they BOTH took part of each side. Yet, when Adonai made covenant with Abraham, only Adonai took part. He was BOTH parts. Adonai was saying that the covenant was so important that He was willing to take ALL the risk and suffer ALL the punishment of this covenant. THIS is the kind of God we serve. THIS is a God who LOVES. But people have been challenging that for centuries.

One of the first arguments is that Adonai is a bit bloodthirsty. After all, He asked Abraham to kill his son. First off, Abraham had spent twenty years meditating on the promise of a son from his loins to be his inheritor. Add to that all the years Isaac has lived (anywhere from about fifteen to twenty). That is almost forty years of taking Adonai at His word that Isaac would inherit. So when Adonai asked Abraham to give up his son, he thought about it and realised that – even though it had never happened before – Adonai was set to raise his son from the dead after that sacrifice. Abraham had been raised in a culture of human sacrifice, so that part wasn’t unusual – thought Adonai had never requested it. Abraham looked at the promise and didn’t back down from it. If Adonai wanted a sacrifice and a promise, raising from the dead was on the menu and wouldn’t THAT be something to see? “God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there” (Hebrews 11:18-19). There was no sorrow here, but expectation. So much expectation it became prophetic: “Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?” “What is it, my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together” (Genesis 22:7-8). Expectation ONLY possible if there was TRUST in Adonai. Abraham trusted very much and THAT was why Adonai called him a friend (James 2:23).

It was VITALLY important that Abraham be willing to give up his son, because he and Adonai had covenant together. Adonai has set things up so that humanity has dominion here on this Earth. If we don’t give our permission, spiritual things cannot interact here. That’s why Adonai is always looking for those to cooperate with (Isaiah 6:8). That’s why angels can tell people where to go or who to listen to, but only HUMANITY can spread the Gospel (Acts 10). People need to cooperate with Adonai. The plan right from the very beginning was for there to be a substitutionary sacrifice for humanity. Genesis 1:1 reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew for ‘beginning’ is ‘Bereshit’, but if you look at the letters within that word and how they are written in unusual forms, you can separate out seven letter groups that form the words: Son, God, Thorns, Head, Tree, Gift, and Covenant. If you read them in the order they are discovered in this word phrase you get a sentence that can be read: The Son of God with thorns on His head hangs on a tree as a gift to give covenant.

Adonai could only give HIS son, if Abraham gave HIS son because they were in covenant and what one did the other was willing to mirror. Because Abraham was willing to give up his son, Adonai was able to give up His. AND He saved Abraham from going through with it by giving a replacement to him. Partly because He does not WANT human sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5), and partly because when making covenant with Abraham Adonai had already agreed to pay BOTH sides of the penalty. ““Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord provides.” It is said to this day, “In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.” The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “I solemnly swear by my own name, decrees the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies. Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.”” (Genesis 22:12-18).

The second major argument I hear about how Adonai isn’t loving is that He killed His own Son. I can see the point. What kind of God kills their child? Except, He didn’t. The Father did not kill the Son. The Son VOLUNTEERED to pay the price that was required for sin. The penalty of sin is death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23). That’s righteous and just. Humanity incurred the penalty. Humanity deserves to die. That didn’t sit well with Adonai. So before creation was created, Jesus agreed to go through with it (Revelation 13:8). A penalty needed to be paid and Jesus volunteered. He did not HAVE to. But He did because He wanted to save people. “keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). The cross was torture, but the end result of it? Joy, because WE would be saved. Humanity would NOT HAVE TO DIE. That is love. “No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Does it STILL seem a little gruesome? Even with the ultimate goal of saving us? Leaving it up to us to decide? “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:16-18). For some people, that isn’t enough. The ends do not justify the means and they see it as unacceptable horror. The thing is this: Jesus was NOT forced. Jesus had a CHOICE. Not only did He have a choice, He had a choice EVERY MOMENT UNTIL HIS DEATH. He tells us about it three times.

One time is in the Garden when they came to arrest Him: “Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father and that he would send me more than 12 legions of angels right now? How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?”” (Matthew 26:52-54). One time was when talking to Pilate during His trial: “So Pilate said, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority to release you and to crucify you?” Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”” (John 19:10-11).

Jesus could have called on the Father for help. Jesus did not HAVE to meekly accept what was happening to Him. The evidence of that is that by speaking one of His true titles, Jesus showed the power inherent in that name: “They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He told them, “I am he.” (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.) So when Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they retreated and fell to the ground” (John 18:5-6). By saying that He was the Great I AM ( Exodus 3:1-15), Jesus spoke the reality of who He was. Simply speaking that NAME had enough power to drive them back and knock them to the ground. Jesus COULD NOT be taken by force.

The most telling words by Jesus about His being the sacrifice are these: ““I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold. I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me—because I lay down my life, so that I may take it back again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again. This commandment I received from my Father.”” (John 10:14-18). The commands of Yahweh CANNOT be thwarted (Job 42:2). The commands of Yahweh NEVER fail to produce (Jeremiah 1:12). The commands of Yahweh are ALWAYS accomplished (Isaiah 46:9-10). That is why Adonai is always careful about what exactly He commands. The commandment to Jesus was authority to lay down His life (die) and pick it up again (resurrect) at WILL. The Father accomplished it by His power through Ruach HaKodesh (Romans 8:11), but it was done at Jesus’ behest. At Jesus’ word (John 19:30; Mark 9:31; Matthew 12:40, 16:21, 27:63; John 2:19). Jesus CHOOSE to do this, when it happened, and when it was accomplished. This was not the decree of a dictator, but the choice of a loving God.

Jesus did it. The Father powered it. Ruach HaKodesh carried it out. This was Adonai acting for us. And it was a substitute. He did THAT so that we would NOT do that. He did death, disease, sickness, infirmity, hell, and the grave so that WE could do the opposite. The fact that we can be healed is totally and absolutely an act of LOVE by a LOVING God. Instead of us being shocked at the horror of sacrifice, we should be shocked at the lengths Adonai has gone to save us. The lengths that He is still going to get the Blessing back into our hands from where we dropped it. We need to get the picture of a loving God inside of us. It needs to get in there deeply. We can’t take from a stranger. We can’t receive with open hearts from someone we don’t really trust. We need to SEE His love, UNDERSTAND His love, and PERCEIVE His love. The first step is seeing Him as loving. From Genesis 1:1 right up to the end. Adonai loves us, loves on us, acts out His love, takes responsibility for His love, provides from His love, and encourages us to participate, cooperate, and live in His love. Healing starts and completes in His love. If you can’t see that, start meditating these verses until it is so real to you, that you CAN’T get sick – because sickness has NO PLACE in His love and His love should have TOTAL PLACE inside of us.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Jeremiah 23:5-6

““I, the Lord, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David. He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding and will do what is just and right in the land. Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: ‘The Lord has provided us with justice.” Messiah would be Elohim. There would be no separation in them. They would be One. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and do so correctly, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”” (John 10:27-30). Jesus never denied it. Jesus always pointed toward His Father to give Him glory. Jesus always acknowledged that He and His Father were One. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b