THE GOSPEL IN GENESIS

THE GOSPEL IN GENESIS

                Abraham sent his oldest and most trusted servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. He sent him to a far country to find a bride after his own kind. So when the servant arrived in the land of his relatives, He asked God for a sign and that sign came in the form of a beautiful young woman who offered him water at the well and then offered to water his ten camels as well. She emptied jar after jar into the trough and then ran back to draw more water. Camels drink a lot of water.

                When she had finished, the servant gave her a gold nose ring and two golden bracelets after which time she offered him a place to stay at her father’s house and food for the camels. There the servant told her family of a son of Abraham who was looking for a bride of his own kind.

                When the family agreed to let Rebekah go with the servant, he brought out gifts of silver and gold and garments and gave them to Rebekah and he gave precious things to Rebekah’s brother and to her mother as well.

                So, after many goodbyes Rebekah, along with her maids, mounted the camels and headed into the unknown to be married sight unseen to a young man she knew in name only.

                Now Isaac was meditating in the field when he looked up and saw the camels coming and so he walked in that direction until they met him in the middle of the field. And so Rebekah was taken to his father’s home, where he entered into the tents of His Mother Sarah and there the two of them consummated their marriage.

                Likewise the heavenly Father sent His trusted servant the Holy Spirit to find a bride for His Son Jesus. He went to a far country to find someone after His kind. When he found her, she was busy about her father’s business, but she took time to welcome the stranger and to take care of his needs. So the Holy Spirit gave gifts to her and covered her entire body with jewels and clothing and precious things. The gifts and the fruits of the Spirit are abundant and free and they go to every part of the Body. Everyone who is a part part of the Bride of Christ has a gift and like Rebecca, they will be found willingly and cheerfully going about their Father’s business.

                I Jewish weddings there are seven blessings given and most of them refer to the Garden of Eden and the first wedding, for within the story of the first wedding, the last wedding is hidden. And just as God made a bride for Adam, so He is also preparing a Bride for His son Jesus. Will he find us eagerly tending to our Father’s business, or will he find only slothful servants who won’t give Him the Time of day? It is interesting that only about 10% of the members of any given church engage in the work of the Father. Most act as guests of the wedding party while some even act as passers by

                Each of us has received gifts from the Holy Spirit. We tend to look at singers, teachers and preachers as those who serve the Lord, but God is looking for willing people who will water the camels as well, for they too will be chosen to be His Bride. Even in the sweat of doing the unlovely thing, your beauty will shine through. God’s servant the Holy Spirit is looking for eager and willing hearts to present to God’s Son and when we have travelled for a while, He will meet us in the middle of the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

                It is important to notice that the camels that Rebekah worked so hard to water became her transportation. The ones she served ended up serving her in the end. And the water that she gave them made the camels able to carry her on the long journey home.

                This wonderful story is found in Genesis chapter 24 with many more details than I have given here. How people can think to do away with the Hebrew Scriptures, I cannot say. It is definitely a sentiment that doesn’t come from God, for the Gospel is firmly established from the beginning of the book to the end.

                The story of Joseph is another Gospel story lived out in the lives of God’s chosen people. Joseph’s brothers, hating their little brother’s big dreams sought to put his dreams to an end by casting him into a pit. Later they sold him as a slave to traders on a caravan to Egypt. After he arrived in Egypt he was sold to Potiphar as a slave. But things went from bad to worse when Potiphar’s wife, being unable to seduce him, instead claimed that he had tried to rape her.

                So, off to jail Joseph went, but Joseph was a young man of excellent faith, much like the faith of Daniel and so instead of giving up, He served the living God without regard to his circumstances. And after he had interpreted a couple of dreams of fellow prisoners, he was sent to Pharaoh to interpret yet another dream and with that interpretation, his situation changed. The rejected one was suddenly raised up to the right hand of Pharaoh and in charge of the whole land as one of the world’s first royal preppers.

                When the ensuing famine came and hunger drove his brothers to Egypt in search of grain, they came face to face with Joseph, but they didn’t recognize Him. Now, being dressed like royalty and looking very much like an Egyptian, they returned several times without knowing that Joseph was their long lost brother.

                When He finally made himself known to them, they were first of all fearful of retribution, but when Joseph forgave them and fell on their necks and hugged them weeping, they mourned for Him as an only son.

                This is a story of Israel. They rejected Jesus, put Him on a Roman cross and saw to His death. But Jesus rose again and having risen He went to heaven to the right hand of the Father. So the gospel went to the Gentiles and during the Dark Ages of the church, Jesus lost His Jewish identity. He had been pulled from His Jewish roots and made to look more like a pagan deity. All of the symbolism, the Feast Days, the Sabbaths and the appointed times of the Lord had been lost so that tradition eventually made Jesus into a Messiah that the Jews can no longer recognize.

                But the story is not over yet, for in their time of great trouble, Yeshua will appear and they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as an only Son. You can read about it in Zechariah 12:7-14. But the story doesn’t end there either, for in Zechariah chapter 14 we are told that Jesus will gather all of the nations against Jerusalem and then He will appear on the scene and fight for Israel as one fights on the day of battle. Then He will set foot on the Mount of Olives and it will split into a large plain and it says: “Then the Lord My God will come and all the holy ones (saints) with Him. And from there to the end, Zechariah describes the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth.

                The Bible is full of these grand themes   and parables in living history that point us to Yeshua, our Jewish Messiah, who will yet return for His people as promised, for as Paul tells us in Romans eleven: We as Gentile Christians did not replace the Jews, but we were grafted into the Jewish Olive Tree so that we could partake of the same rich root of the olive tree and we will remain until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and then Yeshua will turn to His own, for as we have learned, God’s gifts and His calling are irrevocable. It is by faith in Yeshua that we Gentiles have been grafted in. We also have become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

                It is not that God loves Jews more than Gentiles. It is rather that God called one man, Abraham out of the pagan systems of this world and made him into a nation and then into an ever growing family. It is through Abraham and His seed that all the nations have been blessed and so out of all nations the Father is looking for a Bride for His Son and it will be made of those who willingly receive His Holy Spirit.

                These stories should bring great hope to Jews and Gentiles alike. After all, if God can continue His long range plans for the Jews in spite of rejection, how will He not also honor His irrevocable covenants to us? Signed in His own blood, Jesus is not about to change His mind about our salvation. If we will believe in Him and continue to believe in Him and to trust Him, He will make sure that we make it all the way to the finish line, for in Christ we are neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female for in Christ we are one body and He is the head.

                Don’t fall for anti-Semitism, for if you do you will find yourself in the camp of the antichrist. Even now they are in the process of trying to divide Israel, which the Bible says they will do, but we don’t want to belong to a nation that does such a thing because the Lord declares. “For thus says the Lord of hosts. “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you (Israel) for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.” Zech. 2:8

                And speaking of the antichrist in the very last of days, Daniel says: “And he will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god” (Perhaps Allah) he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and he will cause them to rule over the many and will parcel out land for a price.” This is the same one who will commit the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION spoken of by Daniel the prophet. And this abomination is reiterated by Jesus as a last day event just prior to His coming.

                Make no mistake about it; Yeshua wants a global government in which He will be King over all the earth. He wants all of the families of the earth to be blessed. He wants freedom and peace and healing and restoration of all things. But He warns us in the book of Revelation and many other places that an imposter will come first, who will seek to rule over the earth in the place of Christ and this person is also represented in the Bible’s great stories… people like Pharaoh of the Exodus, like Nimrod, like Nebuchadnezzar with his golden statue, like Goliath and others.

                But sweetest of all is the story of the Bride, who came from Adam’s side at creation and then the Bride who came forth from Yeshua’s side who is preparing as a bride adorned for her Husband at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Song of Solomon tells of the unquenchable love of Christ for His Bride. The story weaves its way through the pages of history as the seed line of faith that hears the voice of the Shepherd, going out not knowing where for sure, but looking for a city whose Builder and Maker is God. Sight unseen, they look forward eagerly to their marriage to the One they know in name only. His servant the Holy Spirit has given us gifts to use for Him and He has brought the very presence of Yeshua into our hearts so that we too cry out “Abba Father.”

                Abraham and Sarah became the father and mother of the faithful. They were called out of Nimrod’s Babylon to serve the one God… to be distinguished from the followers of all other gods. They chose to be different, to be separate, to love only the One and to obey and follow Him. As such they become the parents of God’s Remnant people who will be here to meet Him when He comes...called out… peculiar… passionate with love for the One. Betrothed, faithful, loving not the world or the things that are in the world… loving beyond intimacy… we are crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us, and the lives that we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God who first loved us and gave His life for us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power might be from God and not from ourselves.

                So let the world and those in it wrangle over their politics and their gods. As for us, we choose to be a part of the story… the story that flows from Genesis to Revelation… the story of the One and His Bride.