“And YHVeH answered Job out of the tempest and said:
Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
…Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if you know understanding. For do you know who has
Set its measurements? Or who has stretched a line on it? On what
Were its bases sunk? Or who has cast its cornerstone, when the
Morning stars sang together, and all the sons of GOD shouted for
Joy?” (Job 38:1,2, 4-7)
In this passage of Job, we see that GOD is off the Throne in Heaven, and like a meticulous carpenter and construction engineer, GOD is actively and carefully planning –and then constructing -- the earth. GOD is awesomely creating the earth with the work of His own hands, and we can see this validated in other Scripture. For example,
Psalm 104:1-3 states:
“O YHVeH my GOD You are very great, majesty and honor You have put on. Covering Yourself with light like a cloak, and stretching out the heavens like a curtain. Who lays beams in the waters of His upper rooms, who sets thick clouds as His chariot, who marches on the wings of the wind.”
Isaiah 40:22 states:
“He who sits over the circle of the earth, even its dwellers (are) like grasshoppers -- He who stretches the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in.”
In Isaiah 44, we can read how that an idol maker will carve iron with a tool, and form it in the heat of the coals (verse 12). Or how one will fashion an idol by drawing a line on it, and using a stylus and a compass first, apply his carving tool until reaching a desired result (verse 13). And it is to these kinds imageries that again GOD states His origin of all Creation, including man, in verse 24, saying: “So says YHVeH your Redeemer and your Former from the womb – I (am) YHVeH who makes all things: Stretching the heavens? -- I alone. Spreading the earth? -- Who was with Me?”
The Point: GOD alone assumes the role as the Creator.
The morning stars of Job 38:7 are a group of Cherubims (Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:14,16); And the sons of GOD are angels (Genesis 6:1-8 with Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4,5). Notice that the two hold differing roles of response: the Cherubim praise through singing, while the Angels praise through shouting (for joy). It appears that man was created in such a fashion that the two abilities can be combined, singing and shouting. This was understood by the Psalmist, who in the Spirit wrote:
“O come , let us sing to YHVeH:
let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation..
Let us come before His face with praise;
Let us shout for joy to Him with songs.” (Psalm 95:1-2)
The Point: We must stop and ask ourselves the simple questions in order to find the answers. Such might be, ‘Why is it that the angels shout and the cherubim sing praise?’ The answers can vary from the Levitical role of the Cherubim in the heavenly throng, while the angels assume a more militaristic state of being – to the fact that even with exalted intelligence and insight and foresight beyond the greatest of all men, even these beings are stricken with awe at the incomprehensibility of the intelligence and power and ability of the Creator with whom they have the closest of contact with and stand in the literal spiritual presence of. Even the greatest minds of men who look to the stars hold ignorance in why the planets navigate in space on a horizontal plane, hanging or floating on nothing, and don’t fly up and down and all around while yet holding their respective orbits. Why? Because the very “order” in the universe points to a Creator whom they don’t want to acknowledge or find. Yet, GOD has created man with two kinds of personalities in life: the priestly or peaceful one of song; or the militaristic one or the doer / worker who shouts in praises or joy.
Let us examine another instance where there is joyous exclamation by the heavenly beings at GOD’s great work:
“And all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to Him [to Jesus].
And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, ‘This one receives sinners
And eats with them!’
And He [Jesus] spoke to them this parable, saying,
‘What man of you having 100 sheep, and losing 1 of them,
does not leave the 99 in the wilderness, and goes after the
lost 1 until he finds it?
And finding it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And coming to the house, he calls together the friends and
Neighbors, saying to them,
‘’Rejoice with me! For I found my sheep
that had been lost!’’
I say unto you, that so is the joy in Heaven over 1 sinner
Repenting, than over 99 righteous ones who have no need
of repentance.’ “ (Luke 15:1-7)
“And having called forward a little child, Jesus set him in their midst.
And He said, ‘Truly, I say to you, Unless you convert, and become as
The little children, not at all can you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven…
See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I tell you that their Angels in Heaven continually
look on the face of My Father in Heaven.
For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you
Think? If there be to any man 100 sheep, and 1 of them strays away, will
He not leave the 99 on the mountains, and going, seek the straying 1? And
If he happens to find it,
truly I say unto you that he rejoices over it more than
over the 99 not going astray. So it is not the will before your Father in
Heaven that one of these little ones should perish.’ “ (Matthew 18:2-3, 10-14)
In the above passage of Matthew 18, when Jesus calls Himself the “Son of Man”, He is identifying Himself as the Messiah (e.g., Daniel 7:13); who in Scripture is YHVeH, GOD Almighty. Jesus identifies His purpose on earth – at this time – is to save lost mankind from the destruction of sin, as it is written:
“For GOD so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten
Son, that everyone believing into Him should not perish,
But have ever-lasting life. For GOD did not send His Son
Into the world that He might JUDGE the world, but that the
World might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
The Point: Mankind is a collection of lost and wandering souls, who multiply and die like the unintelligent sheep of the fields. And like the lost sheep, we have the propensity, the very inclination and desire to go astray in our sins, and to separate ourselves for a Holy and Loving GOD, who has our best interests at heart; yet, allows man to exercise a free will, even to his own and other’s destruction. Such other destruction is like the herd of some 2,000 swine that charged off the steep hill at Gadarene, and drowned in the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5:11-14). This represents war, and riots, and pestilences among the nations when they act like and become the profane things unto GOD: they are driven by the devils they worship or are shepherded by, to their own destruction – to their own demise.
It is written in Isaiah,
“All we like sheep, go astray;
we have turned, each man, to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6)
Yet, in that passage of Isaiah 53, Messiah comes in perfect righteousness to offer up His Soul as a guilt offering for our sins (v.10), and to die in our place (v.12). However, it is not to His own destruction, which the Psalmist in the Spirit assures us (Psalm 16:10), citing that His body shall not see corruption: that is, it will not disintegrate to the worms or maggots, nor will even see the stink of decomposition.
So why does GOD the Son come down from Heaven, bother to be born of a virgin, fulfill hundreds of prophecies that can’t be manipulated into occurrence, live for 33 years as though one of us in perfection, and die in our place on the Cross, only to rise again from the dead? In His own words, He says:
“I am the Good Shepherd! The Good Shepherd lays down His life
for the sheep.
But the hireling, not even being a shepherd, who does not OWN the
Sheep, sees the wolf coming, and forsakes the sheep, and flees.” (John 10:11,12)
Jesus as YHVeH owns us, the sheep. In the Garden of Eden, the angels that were assigned to keep our 1st Father Adam company, along with our 1st Mother Eve, forsook their watch-posts when the one whom we call Satan came and enticed our first parents. So in conjunction with Eve’s ignorance, Satan’s enticement, and Adam’s sin – there were other mitigating factors that were involved in and around the fall of our first parents. These things would only be known by an eyewitness who was there AT the Beginning: GOD in Jesus Christ, whom is correctly called YHVeH Messiah.
Again, GOD sees man as a lost sheep, and He seeks each one of us: calling out to us in our own wildernesses of sin. Jesus paid the ultimate price of laying down His life to redeem us, showing that He is truly our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd.
As a little child, we need to simply trust (or believe) into Jesus as our Redeemer. Those who trust into Jesus, and stop running away from GOD, will be picked up and carried on His shoulders HOME. Thus, GOD assumes all responsibility for the works of our salvation. For it is written,
“For by grace are you being saved,
through faith, and this is not of you;
of GOD (is) this gift; not of works,
lest anyone should boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8,9)
The Good Shepherd gives us reason to trust Him, for He seeks: to protect, to comfort, and to encourage us. He will feed us: both with His word and with literal food, and nourish us. When we look to YHVeH Messiah for these things, we are thus:
“Looking to the Author and Finisher of our Faith.”
(Hebrews 12:2)
Jesus rejoices in saving lost man…and when the shepherd of Luke 15 returns home, he announces forth how that his lost sheep was found, and calls for a celebration with his friends and neighbors. The event becomes a time of community rejoicing. In the country, where towns were as small as 100 people or less, then the event becomes as much revelry in the act of the saving as much as in the joy of the return of the one being saved.
Now returning to the saved sheep: if the sheep that strayed still has the same old nature, will it not stray again, and possibly perish? The fact that the sheep is saved from destruction and likely being injured and hurt, unable to return on its own accord, has to be carried on the shoulders home, and not walked. This suggests a form of spiritual exhaustion to any former rebellion and a deep appreciation for being rescued or saved. When sincere appreciation of salvation occurs, there is a trust that forms; and anyone that will trust into YHVeH Messiah – Jesus Christ, that trust changes them for the excellency, and it can be forever, as it is written:
“So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation:
the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The person has a new spiritual nature within, and this new creation within in spirit quickly manifests into a new and holy conduct.
In the true reality beyond this present understanding, the friends and neighbors of the Good Shepherd – YHVeH Messiah – are the host of Heaven: angels, cherubim, and seraphim. For as the angels did shout and the cherubim did sing for joy at the wonder of GOD in creating the heavens and the earth: so also do they shout and sing at the wonder of GOD’s awesome acts of new creations in the hearts and souls of man. Angels and Cherubs who sin have no act of atonement in place for them, they have no “redeemer” if they should decide to sin to their own destruction (for whatever reason) and fall away. Therefore, to these, the very idea of salvation and atonement is awesome indeed; though we humans seem to take this for granted.
It appears that in order to keep the heavenly host from feeling left out, they are given various constructive assignments. Now according to Scripture, there are assignments such as the 4 angels who are given power over the wind upon the earth, who stand by at the earth’s 4 corners (Revelation 7:1). But more importantly, and quite numerously, are the assignments of the guardian angels of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 18:10, and supported in other passages, such as Psalm 91:11-12 which reads:
“For His angels He will order for you, to keep you in all your ways.
On their palms they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot on a stone.”
In examining all this, we see that we are helpless to take credit for our own or anyone else’s salvation. Jesus assures us that the salvation He grants us are not just the deliverances from the daily or more often trials and tribulations of our present physical, spiritual, and et cetera lives – but that He offers an eternal security and salvation that even death cannot take away from us:
“And I give eternal life to them;
and they shall never perish forever,
and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
“My Father, who has given [them] to Me is greater than all,
and no one is able to pluck out of My Father’s hand.
I and Father are One!” (John 10:28-30)
If He draws you to Himself to believe and trust into Him, simply believe and trust. By reading this post, or hearing its words, you are being invited by GOD to receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Yes, Y-O-U! From the Foundation of the World, in a power and glory that awes the Hosts of Heaven, G-D has looked forward to those whom He calls to live eternally in joy unspeakable forever.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Make the choice today, this very moment, to receive Christ into your heart and believe that He has paid for your sins by His shed blood at the Cross, that He died for you, and was raised the 3rd day from the dead as alive and living. Call upon His Name and you shall be saved. (Romans 10:9-10,13). And we who die in this body, trusting into Jesus as our LORD and Saviour, if we die before the Rapture, Christ comes for us lovingly, and receives our spirits to Himself and takes us to where He is in Heaven (John 14:3, 12:26; Revelation 22:1-5). Hallelujah.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
(Revelation 21:4).
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment