It hard to imagine that God kept something hidden from generations of people (including the Israelites) and then reveals that mystery, post Christ’s ascension? In Colossians 1;26 it states “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.”

Does this not seem a little unfair for those previous generations? And who are those previous generations?  Another question is, why did I say in my opening paragraph “and then reveals it post Christ’s ascension”

Yes, I haven’t forgotten the burning question of what is this mystery?

If we read further into the passage in Colossians 1 the writer gives us the answer to what is this mystery. Here are the verses:

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which^[d]is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”

Yes the mystery is that Christ wants to be in you and if you fully submit to Him, Christ is in you!!!

Hold that thought because I need to give you some interesting information. The other day I did a search on some specific words in the Bible. The word search included “God with us” and the other words “Christ in us” or “Jesus in us” or “Spirit in us”. You can see the difference. “with us” verses “in us”.

Just as an aside remember what the words Immanuel means? It is in Matthew 1:23. Yes it means “God with us”.

Anyway when I did the search for those words I found something really interesting. All the “God with us” phrases are found primarily in the Old Testament and a couple in the New Testament. Interestingly the ones in the NT are all before Jesus ascension to heaven. All of the verses that have “Christ in us”  are in the NT and all of them are stated in verses after the ascension of Jesus.

So the “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.” which is “Christ in us” happened after His ascension. Remember shortly before Christ ascended (read Acts 1) Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come to the disciples.

So the mystery was revealed to all people, especially the Gentiles, that through the Holy Spirit Christ would live in us. To those generations before they had God with them. They saw His power and glory as he dwelt with them in the sanctuary and on the mountains and by His acts for Israel. I ask the question would they have understood that Christ would live in us after his death, resurrection and ascension? I say probably not. What do you think?

When Jesus walked this planet He was totally dependant on the Sprit living in Him. He completely submitted and surrendered to the Spirit in order to do the will of God. As we know that is what He did.

He really was an example to us of what He wants to do in us. That is, live in us. Just like the Spirit lived in Him so He could do the will of the Father He will live in us to do the will of the Father. The other part of the verses in Colossians also state ” we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Yes because Christ is perfect and He lives in us. The verse also adds “His working which works in me mightily.” Therefore it is not our works but Jesus work within us. Jesus does it all. All we have to do is submit completely to Him and let Him live in us. Wow what a great God we have.

 

 

I have found the many visions written in the book of Zechariah are really interesting and they tell us so much about God and His salvation.

I have chosen the vision in Zechariah 5: 5-11, notably called “the woman in the basket”. At first glance you will obviously see the themes of  wickedness, judgment and the Temple restoration. (go to the end of this blog for the verses).

Lets start at the opening scene of this vision, it starts with a basket flying in the air. The basket is actually a measuring device and we find the basket has a woman in it who is trying to get out. But we read an angel is forcing the lid down onto the woman to contain her.

Following that we also see two woman with wings like storks that carry the basket away to another place called Shinar (Babylon) where it would be set on its base. Interestingly, Shinar was also the site of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:2).

Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”⁶ So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket^[a] that is going forth.”He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth: ⁷ Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”; ⁸ then he said, “This isWickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover^[b]over its mouth. ⁹ Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.¹⁰ So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”¹¹ And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar;^[c] when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”

In John 2 there is the story of Jesus clearing out the the temple and overturning tables  and showing His anger. I have heard talks from speakers abou this event and generally they explain the parallel between Jesus and the temple and the justifying of  righteous anger and other such points. 

My thoughts on this passage today, are more about what this means to us personally. 

So to explain my thought, I will build some context by going back to the time of Joshua and the Israelites and the destruction of  Jericho. Remember the story when the walls came tumbling down. This is found in Joshua 6. 

Briefly, in this story we find the Israelites after crossing the river Jordan going through to the promised land. They immediately come up against an impenetrable walls protecting the philistines. 

So what did they do? We read that they gathered together in pray and were given Gods assurance of victory. They then did as instructed and marched around the walls once a day while the priests blew their trumpets as the arc of the covenant was carried behind them.

The next day they did the same again. And they did this every day for 6 days.

On the seventh day they walked around the walls doing the same as before but this time they walked around the walls seven times and at the very end there was a long blow of the rams horn and the people shouted. When they did this the walls collapsed. 

As I have written before in other blogs the numbers have meanings in this passage but I will get to that soon. See if you can work it out before I tell you.

The metaphor for this story is that the Israelites were going to the promised land but their were pockets of rebellion in that land. The walls collapsed because of God’s power and nothing the Israelites did except for complete surrender to His will.  Again this is like our life. We have pockets of rebellion in us and it is only through surrender to God’s will and power that God eradicates the sin or rebellion in our life. Nothing we can do except believe and surrender will root out pockets of rebellion or sin in our lives. 

Back to the numbers again. Yes, the number 6 is humanity without God. They walked 6 times over 6 days and nothing happened. Yes the walls remained and so did the philistines. But on the 7 day and the seventh time the people shouted out and victory was done. It is perfection (represented by #7) that eliminates pockets of rebellion or sin in our lives. Where perfection resides there is no darkness.

Now back to Jesus in the temple. The parallel is striking. Here we see Jesus cleansing the temple just like God was cleansing the land the Israelites were going to occupy. God will do anything to take those things out of our lives. He wants to dwell in our body or temple and by our submission He will root those pockets of rebellion or sin out of our lives. We cannot do this ourselves. It must be Jesus power alone. He loves us so much and wants nothing to prevent or spoil our relationship with Him. 

When Jesus was in the temple he said “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Interestingly the traders were selling animals for sacrifice. So in essence they were justifying their actions by doing something that was needed for the Temple sacrifices. However they were doing it for the wrong reasons and thus were defiling the Temple. You see they had got to a point where their actions were rationalised and they thought it was ok.

So Jesus is showing us that of ourselves we cannot root out pockets of sin that hurt our relationship withHim. Remember He is a jealous God and wants all of us. So Jesus is the only one who can cleanse the Temple that is Jesus is the only one who can cleanse us. Only he can drive out those things that defile the Temple. 

So if we ask Him to live in us be prepared that He will enter and change us from within. Just like Joshua and Israelites God will destroy those things in our lives that defile His paradise.

Getting back to the sentance “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” I want to add that we cannot trade with God either. We cannot trade our degree of submission in our own lives. We cant submit 95% of us and still want to have some control. There is no trade off here! It is 100% submission and nothing less. Give it all to Him and He will enter your temple and cleanse you from within. When you surrender your temple to Him, Jesus lives in us. It is then His presence will be seen by others and they too will be moved to seek Him.

You probably guessed that I am giving my biblical thoughts on the wedding in Canna where Jesus performed His first recorded miracle. The reference is John 2:1-12.

I admit that when I read the opening words “on the third day” that really got my attention, because there are a number of things recorded in the Bible that occurred on the third day. The most memorable in the New Testament is when Jesus was resurrected on the third day. So I asked myself is the miracle at the wedding connected to Jesus resurrection?

To understand the context of the wedding miracle I read the preceding passages in John 1. Reading John 1 I realised there is a distinct link between that passage and Genesis 1 (see my blog on Salvation in Genesis for some further reading). The first chapters in John and Genesis set the referral point for the wedding scene. However I will return to that thought at the end of the this blog.

So the scene is obviously a wedding and this gives the context of the passage and the message. I am sure you know that a wedding is about union between two people and the parallel is that Jesus mission was about the union of God to His children (us).

In John 2 verse 6 we read there are 6 waterpots of stone. We know these pots were generally used to purify the hands prior or during to a meal, apart from other uses. In the wedding they now replaced the purifying water with wine. Then we find out the wine runs out and Jesus has it replaced with water. This is interesting in its self. The pots are to cleanse the hands prior to a meal then for the wedding they replace that with wine then Jesus replace the pots with water and turns it into wine. It is a statement about mans efforts in salvation. Man uses the water to cleanse themselves and resorts to man made wine to save themselves. However Jesus uses the Living Water to cleanse us and the wine represents His blood which provides us salvation. So this parallel is comparing mans efforts versus Jesus way is Jesus to salvation.

This story is a metaphor to illustrate our lives without God and more specifically humanity without God. The clue is the number 6. Six in the Bible means humanity without God, it is “the number of man, the number of imperfections and man’s work”.

So here we find man’s efforts in producing wine eventually fails, despite man’s efforts it will never restore the union between man and God that was in the beginning of the creation of man.

To further explain let’s look at verse 7. Jesus instructs the servants to fill the 6 empty pots and they filled them to the brim (that is to the very top). This filling to the brim is significant. As it eliminates any chance of the servants or Jesus adding something extra to the water to alter it, otherwise it would overflow. The change from water to wine was not from what was added rather it was a changing from within. Just like us. We are not changed because Jesus helps us to change by adding some extra power, rather we are changed completely because Jesus lives in us. I cringe when I think I use to pray these words “please help me to be a better person ………”. Rather I now I pray for Jesus to live in me through the Holy Spirit and take control of my life and do the will of God in me.

The important part is to understand that Jesus is the 7th pot in this story and as you know seven means perfection in the Bible. He pours himself completely into the other pots. That is why the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now” Again this affirms the concept that man’s efforts will never be good enough and always inferior. Only Jesus is perfect and it is He that must live in us to escape condemnation and the fear of death.

Now lets wrap this up. The wedding feast is about union with God as it was in the garden of Eden. John purposley connects Genesis 1 (which is about salvation and having the Light live in us) in the first chapter of John because he knows Jesus is the Light of the world and the Lamb of God who takes away sin. Jesus was also “in the beginning with God” and talked with Adam and Eve and now has come to restore the relationship that once was. It was the third day when Jesus resurected and this was the day salvation through His blood was available to us. Praise God. 

 

In John 14:15 it states “If you Love Me, keep My commandments”.

I have experienced a plethora of comments by christians about this statement. They range from “I can keep the commandments with God’s help” and others who say the 10 commandments were done away with at the Cross.

So what is Jesus really saying?

You may be thinking well I am going to add to the plethora of thoughts on what this means. I guess I am, but read on regardless.

We all know the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 detail the things that not only show up the sin in our life but it also the Old Testament is littered with commands to keep those commandments.

Then we find when Jesus walked this earth He gave us 2 commandments. These are found in Matthew 22:33-40 as follows:

37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 22:34-40

In essence Jesus is saying these 2 commandments that He gave us is an explanation of the 10 Commandments (see verse 40). So what is Jesus saying her? Well i think He is saying the following:

The Commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul has three elements. If you read the first three of the 10 Commandments you will note the first three are about giving ALL your heart, mind and soul (all of you) over to God. Yes the first three are about our relationship to God.

The fourth Commandment is the Sabbath commandment, which I believe this about giving time to God. This also is about our relationship to God.

So, if you give ALL of your heart and mind and soul and time to God the result will be that Christ will live in you through the Holy Spirit. These are the first 4 Commandments in the Old Testament.

The next 6 Commandments are  about our relationship to our fellow “man” and these commandments will be done by Christ who is in us.

Remember, it is Christ who kept the commandments and it is Christ whom the Father sees in us.

In other words God the Father sees Jesus in us and I must no leave out that He (the Father) also sees that we are covered by the blood of Jesus.

Why is it that we need to be covered by the blood of Jesus?

Well that goes back the the sanctuary services in the Old Testament. Every year the blood of a pure (without blemish) Lamb was sprinkled onto the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. God was actually present above the Mercy Seat. Interestingly, under that Mercy Seat was three things 1) 10 Commandments 2) Aaron’s rod that budded and 3) manna from the desert. These items reveal how we fall short of what is expected. However, when the blood of the animal sacrifice, which represents Jesus death and blood, is sprinkled onto the Mercy Seat God who is above the Mercy Seat cannot see through the blood of Christ. That is He cannot see through the blood and see the things that condemned us. You see God does not see the things that condemn us because of Jesus spilt blood. Wow what a loving God we have.

So, it is the Holy Spirit that does those last 6 commandments in our lives, as a witness to others to draw them to Jesus. It is the Father that sees Christ in us and thus He sees the Commandment keeper, the perfect One and we accounted perfect in God’s eyes.

Remember the story of Peter walking on the water? As soon as he took his eyes off Jesus he went into the sea. It is the same with us. If we take our eyes off Jesus or in other words do not continue to submit ourselves completely to God we will sink into the “sea” like Peter.

Lets not forget that it is the Holy Spirit, upon request of the Father, that is always influencing us to give all of ourselves to Him. All we have to do is submit ALL of us and our time to God and by doing that we are obeying Jesus commandment to “keep My commandments”. It through submission that we keep His commandments and never about our efforts. We wouldn’t even submit ourselves unless the Father asks the Spirit to influence us to draw to the Father.

I am so thankful that Jesus summarised the 10 Commandments by giving us 2 commandments. These 2 commandments shed light on the 10 Commandments. The 10 show us what we can do to “keep the commandments”. That is, choose to completely submit ourselves to God.

 

Gen 1:1 In the beginning ……… God gave us the story of salvation.

You are probably saying what Bible version is that?

The Bible states this: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over over the face of the waters.

Then God said “Let there be light” and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.

I beleive the first 4 verses introduces the story of Salvation and our spiritual journey. Let me explain.

The words “In the beginning” is not about God as He has no beginning. God has always existed. It is about the beginning of us on planet Earth.

When it describes the Earth it states it is formless and void. I believe there is a parallel here. I see this state (without form or void) as a description of us without God in our life. We don’t reflect anything of God we are nothing without God. We are in total darkness.

Then we see God’s Grace as he has His Spirit hovering over the waters, which describes people/multitudes ( see Is 18:12, 5:30, Jer 51:42). I view this as the Spirit hovers over the people and tries to influence people to come to God or as verse 3 states it that we come into the Light.

At this stage we need to read some verses out of John 1. Here it describes the Light that was to come into the world and that Light was God in the form of Jesus. John 1:9 states “That was the true Light (Jesus) which gives light to every man coming into the world” To me this relates back to Genesis 1. We have our beginning and the Spirit hovers over us until we come into the Light and out of darkness.

Until we come into the Light we are separated from God, that is, we are without form or void. The Spirit hovers over all people (the waters) and tries to influence us to see the Light. It is when we see that Light we know what darkness is. That is,  a life without the Light (Jesus) is a life of darkness.

Because we are in the Light we are perfect even though may look that we are still formless and void.

So on the first day of our spiritual journey we are perfect as we are in the Light and no longer separated from God. We still may look like the old person who was in the darkness but we are perfect because of the Light.

I see the following day (2-6) in the creation week as our spiritual journey (still in the Light). Each day we see God’s creation in us because Christ (the Light) is in us and we change to exude more of Him in our lives. Just as much we would have seen the changes on Earth after each day.

It is interesting that each day God says “and it was good” or perfect as God only makes perfect.

So if you were looking from space at the changes going on during the creation week you would see all things are perfect and as the days progressed perfection would look better and better until the completion of the creation on day 6. God’s work in us is the same. As our walk with Jesus on our spiritual journey others will see in us a change. For us we just keep looking at Jesus or as Peter found the water did not hold him and he went under when he took his eyes off Jesus.

I need to emphasis that it doesn’t matter what day you are on your journey whether day1 or 2 or 6 you are perfect in God’s eye as you have the Light (Jesus) in you.

I could explain the significance of the creation of fruit and trees and the stars, waters  etc but this would make this a disertation rather than a readable blog. Maybe I can challenge you to think and research those links to our development as a child of God.

So what happened on the seventh day? The Bible states “He rested on the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”

It always puzzled me, why does God have to rest when he is all powerful. Surely God doesn’t have to rest after 6 days of labour? Using the parallel that this story is explaining our salvation I would say God rested at the end of the recreation of us because it is the time when we are in heaven and sin is no longer existing in the universe. God can then rest that sin will no longer return to the universe, all have seen the effects of sin and how it took the sacrifice of Jesus to eventually eradicate sin.

It is interesting that God said He sanctified the day. Well the word sanctify means “free from sin” and that is exactly what happens when God is vindicated as a loving God full of Grace and Mercy. The universe is free from sin forevermore.

Wow what a great thought, but more so, what a great promise! Living with God for eternity resting in the fact that sin will never exist again.

 

 

The story of David and Bathsheba has been told many ways and this is my Bible thoughts on what I think this story means to us.

I often wonder why God said David was a “man after His own heart” (Acts 13:22).  After all, David not only committed adultery with another mans wife he then sent the husband of Bathsheba to the front of a battle to be killed.

Ok, probably best to get some detail around this story so I can explain what I mean. If you want to read the chapter look up 2 Samuel 11.

So, David sees a beautiful woman on the roof top bathing. So the first thing he should have done was turn away. But he didn’t. This reminds me of the time in the Garden of Eden when Eve was attracted to the tree (yes the tree of good and evil) that she was told to stay away from. It appears she also, like David, was mesmerised by the tree but in David’s case it was Bathsheba. So David then asks who she is and then has his servants bring her to him. Again the similarities to Eve are striking because both Eve and David stood by the forbidden “fruit” and after some discussion they both took what they desired.

As we know David slept with Bathsheba and she fell pregnant. So now the problems start to pile up. After all, he is King and he just cant take another man’s wife and not expect issues. He would be disgraced if the kingdom knew what he did.

So David starts to think of how to cover this situation up. So when Uriah the husband of Bathsheba returns from the battle field David sees him sleeping outside the palace with the servants. But this not what David wants him to do. David wants him home to be with his wife so the baby appears to be Uriah’s. Despite David’s request the attempt to cover up his issue fails so he then tries to get him drunk and tries to get Uriah to go and see his wife but that doesn’t work either.

All of David’s plan had failed. In desperation he plots another plan to ensure Bathsheba becomes a widow and he can look like he is doing a good thing by taking her in to his palace to look after her. So David sends a message to the commander at the war front to send Uriah to the front and then retreat to ensure Uriah s killed. What a tragic event and what a shameful thing to do to cover up his own mistakes or sins.

Now I will explain my opening thoughts.

Post these events I believe David came to the realisation that what he did to Uriah was wrong and against moral laws. He tried to trick Uriah without success and then placed him in a battle to be killed and as we know that is what he got.

However, I think he eventually realised what he did to Uriah is the same as what he was doing to the Messiah (Jesus). David realised his sin will send Jesus to the His death to cover his sins. Just as much he sent Uriah to his death to cover his sin of adultery.

David also realises God knows all his sins and he can’t hide them from Him, like he tried to with Uriah, and that he knows his sin was going to put Jesus to death.

Maybe this was a turning point in David’s life. He personalised what he did to Uriah with what was required to cover his sins. That is, the death of the Lamb of God, the Messiah – Jesus.

As I stated I think this realisation by David and his subsequent absolute (100%) surrender to God is what  God saw and thus called him my beloved David a man after my own heart.

Interestingly, he still paid the price of the sin during his life because he wasn’t allowed to build the Temple. He was deeply disappointed because he wanted to do that for God and not for His own glory.

So when you read the story replace Uriah’s name with Jesus and the story will take a whole new meaning. Particular think about the part when Uriah did not sleep with his wife as he wanted to remain pure without any so called blemish.

Remember when Satan met Jesus in the desert and promised Him everything if He would do as Satan requested. There is such a parallel between this and David’s request to Uriah. theres something to contemplate.

So read this story and maybe you will find what David found. Yes we have put Jesus on the Cross because of our sins but importantly Jesus willing gave of Himself to save us. Such pure “unadulterated” love and grace for us.

The so called “woman at the well” has been discussed in every which way. All of the narrations bring something different to the event and enrich the reader into understanding the messages of this event.

So what I want to highlight is the details of the passage that brings more meaning and understanding the the event. In this case the details centre around the different numbers in the passage of scripture and what significance they hold.

If you read John 4:4-26 (I copied it into end of this blog for your convenience) it will help understand my view on the event.

The woman comes to the well at the 6th hour ie around midday. This is unusual as most of the water gathering takes place in the cooler hours of morning and afternoon. So the woman seeks water in isolation and finds a man at the well. There is an interaction between them and Jesus explains he is the Living Water  So she asks  to demands that water and adds “so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”

Jesus then changes the subject to ask about her husband. Why so you ask? After all she she sought the Living water?

Jesus asks this question because He knows she has been seeking pure love and grace in human relationships. She responds that she does not have a husband because she is now living with a man after she had 5 husbands before him.

If we simply take the numbers involved in this discussion we see she had 5 husbands first. We know 5 represents Grace in the Bible and we can see the Samaritan woman has sought Grace and love in different relationships represented by 5 different men.

Having not found what she desired she resorts to a different type of relationship, still seeking love and grace, by living with a man outside the committment of a marriage. Chronologically this man is the sixth man. In the Bible 6 represents humanity or an imperfect system without God. By living with the 6th man we see she now desperately seeks love and grace through humanity.

Then she meets the 7th man at the well and number 7 represents perfection in the Bible.  So the woman at the well meets the perfect man (Jesus) that satisfies humanities thirst for love and grace.

Isn’t that a true representation of people’s lives today. Seeking love from serial relationships yet never being satisfied because there is only one relationship that will satisfy. That is,  the 7th man, the God-man. The perfect man who loves His creation so much that He died for them so we can experience that love and grace forever.

To conclude I want you to think about why the Bible states in verse 6 “(Jesus) …..was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (midday).”There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.” QUESTION: what is significant about the woman coming at the 6th hour? QUESTION 2: Jesus died after 6 hours on the cross – why is that so significant?

Bible Text – John 4:4-26

Jesus Goes to Galilee
John4:1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about [a]the sixth hour.

The Woman of Samaria
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She *said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

 

I have found the Old Testament (OT) is rich with the testament of God’s love for mankind. Unfortunately most people believe the Ot is only full of bloodshed and revenge.

Recently I was reading Zechariah and wanted to share my thoughts on the following verses:

Zechariah 5

Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll.

2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty [a]cubits and its width ten cubits.”

3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side.

4 I will make it go forth,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.”

One could read these verses and say that was interesting but what does it all mean? How does this reveal God’s love and salvation?

Let me give you the key words that open up the whole vision. It is found in Verse 2 where it describes the scroll as “its length is twenty cubits and width ten cubits”. You are probably asking why is that so important.

If we search for similar size objects in the Bible we find the Temple porch is the same length and width as the flying scroll. (1 Kings 6:3)

We know what happened on the Temple porch. It was where the Priest would put the blood on the scapegoat to be sent off into the wildness. Importantly the Law was read out on the porch.

So what does the scroll represent. I have already given you a clue.

Remember it is an open scroll and therefore has two sides, the verse tells us that too. So the scroll represents the 10 Commandments, that is the Law. You see that the Law is flying over the earth which is really about judgement. Anyway, lets dig a bit deeper.

Interestingly, the scroll has two sides and remember Jesus gave us 2 commandments – “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Have you ever thought God in the OT gives 10 commandments and Jesus gives 2 in the NT. This vision brings the two together and explains the connection.

One side of the scroll is our relationship with God and the other side is man’s relationship with man. The two sides of the scroll. Jesus explains two commandments in the NT which also reveals the two sides of the Law.

So we see the flying scroll representing God’s commandments because of the one clue of the length and width. It then illustrates the two sides of the commandments which Jesus describes in the NT.

Let me put it simply as follows: The first three of the 10 commandments are about giving our heart, mind and soul.

The fourth commandment (the Sabbath) is about giving time to God.

The last 5 commandments is what will the Holy Spirit will do in us if we give our heart , mind and soul and time to God that is the first 4 commandments).

If we look back at verse 3: “surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side”. One side is about stealing from God what is His. That is, a relationship with him (Commandments 1-4) and the other side is about those who swear or have behaviour at odds to what the Law demands.

The Good News is that if we submit (100%) to God our hearts, mind and soul and give time to Him the Holy Spirit will do Commandments 5-10 in us.

There is so much more to these verses and could write so much more but I will leave that for you to discover.

For me, the parable about the feeding of the 5,000 describes the power of grace, love and the union of man with God.

The event of feeding the 5000 goes likes this (Matt 14):

Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”

16 But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”

17 “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.

18-21 Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.

The message of grace and union is in the detail of this event. Don’t you find it interesting that specific numbers or descriptions are stated in the Bible?

It is commonly known that the number 5 represents grace and number 2 means union.

So here we find there are 5 loaves of bread and there are 2 fish. To me this simply states that it is Grace (#5) that joins the 2 fishes to feed the 5,000. It is Grace that joins man to God. In the union Jesus lives in us through Holy Spirit, we do the will of the Father, which in part is to be a witness of God’s Grace and Love in our lives.

It is no coincidence that in this event Jesus used barley loaves and fish. Jesus said  “‘…….Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”(Matt 4:4) and inJohn 6:50  “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” Yes God came down from heaven because He is Grace and he wants us to be joined to Him, as it was in the beginning. He did that by dying on the cross.

The fish used in this event remind me of what Jesus said to His disciples “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Matt 4:9. It is when we are in union with God, because of His Grace, we become the vessel with Christ in control to fish for people and have them know of God’s endless grace and love and mercy and……

The last number used in the feeding of the 5,000 is 12. Yes there were 12 baskets left over full of leftovers containing fish and bread. the number generally means “governmental authority, a completeness or perfection”

So, what is left in the end will be perfection and completeness when people know and accept God’s grace, accept the bread (Jesus) that was broken for us and become united with Him.

It is through God’s grace and love, which is seen in Jesus sacrifice on the cross for all people, that we can be united with God  and be fishers of people.