John Lomacang : Saturday's Campmeeting Sermonette, "main points" transcript Options

[Pickle]

Different subject, same general idea: If you want to make your head spin, think on this: how clearly would you get a picture of the Messiah's death and resurrection just by reading the Old Testament? Can you think of any clear prophecies that can't only be understood in retrospect?

Abraham told Isaac that God would "provide" a lamb. A ram, not a lamb, died in the place of Isaac. Thus the ram must have symbolized the lamb that God would one day provide to die in our place.

The place where that happened was called Jehovah Jireh, for "in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." The Hebrew for "seen" is the same as "provide." Thus it would be right there, on Mount Moriah where the temple was later built, where God would one day provide the lamb.

On that occasion with Abraham as when Noah got off the boat and when the destroying angel stopped short of reaching Jerusalem in the days of David, God showed mercy and grace prior to the sacrifice, but then poured out a huge blessing after the sacrifice was offered. This showed that blessings come only because of the merit of a sacrifice, but it also showed that the sacrifice of the ram by Abraham, the clean beasts by Noah, and the animals by David did not merit the blessings but only typified the merits of the lamb God would one day provide.

If you became poor and sold yourself and your land, you could be redeemed by a kinsman at any time, and if not, you were redeemed by God Himself at the jubilee, which suggests that God Himself would become our kinsman, if it really be true that only kinsmen can redeem.

Ahab sold himself to do evil, so slavery is used in the OT as a symbol of bondage to sin, from which a redeemer needs to buy us back. Now since God Himself sold His people into the hands of their oppressors when they would sell themselves to do evil, it appears that it is God that must buy them back.

The reason you could get your freedom and land back is because you had entered into a covenant with God. Because of that you received an inheritance of land. Sometimes that land is called God's inheritance, which points to the fact that the land was inherited from and given by God.

But in order to inherit something from someone, that someone has to die. And thus tied in with jubilee theology is the notion that the God who would become a man would also die that we might inherit the blessings of the covenant/testament/will.

If no kinsman stepped in to redeem you prior to the jubilee, God did it Himself. Twice in the latter part of Isaiah it refers to this when it pictures God wondering that there was no man, and then His own bringing salvation. The surrounding verses speak of a) God being our Redeemer, b ) His people being the redeemed, c) the desolate land blossoming as the rose (thus being reclaimed as in the jubilee year), and d) God bringing vengeance upon the oppressors of His people.

On the idea of vengeance being tied to redemption, it is interesting to note that often salvation/saved/redeemed is tied together with the idea of vengeance upon the oppressors. Indeed, the Hebrew word translated "Redeemer" is also translated as "avenger" in the phrase "avenger of blood," and as "kinsman."

As far as how much of all this the people understood in OT times, consider the wise woman whom Joab used to convince David to bring Absalom home. One thing she said was that God makes a way to bring His banished back home. She evidently understood quite a lot.

This post has been edited by Pickle: Jun 9 2007, 05:23 AM

[mozart]

WOW Bob what a great post. i feel so blessed. We truly have an AWESOME GOD.
thank you so much for posting this.

Abraham told Isaac that God would "provide" a lamb. A ram, not a lamb, died in the place of Isaac. Thus the ram must have symbolized the lamb that God would one day provide to die in our place.

The place where that happened was called Jehovah Jireh, for "in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." The Hebrew for "seen" is the same as "provide." Thus it would be right there, on Mount Moriah where the temple was later built, where God would one day provide the lamb.

On that occasion with Abraham as when Noah got off the boat and when the destroying angel stopped short of reaching Jerusalem in the days of David, God showed mercy and grace prior to the sacrifice, but then poured out a huge blessing after the sacrifice was offered. This showed that blessings come only because of the merit of a sacrifice, but it also showed that the sacrifice of the ram by Abraham, the clean beasts by Noah, and the animals by David did not merit the blessings but only typified the merits of the lamb God would one day provide.

If you became poor and sold yourself and your land, you could be redeemed by a kinsman at any time, and if not, you were redeemed by God Himself at the jubilee, which suggests that God Himself would become our kinsman, if it really be true that only kinsmen can redeem.

Ahab sold himself to do evil, so slavery is used in the OT as a symbol of bondage to sin, from which a redeemer needs to buy us back. Now since God Himself sold His people into the hands of their oppressors when they would sell themselves to do evil, it appears that it is God that must buy them back.

The reason you could get your freedom and land back is because you had entered into a covenant with God. Because of that you received an inheritance of land. Sometimes that land is called God's inheritance, which points to the fact that the land was inherited from and given by God.

But in order to inherit something from someone, that someone has to die. And thus tied in with jubilee theology is the notion that the God who would become a man would also die that we might inherit the blessings of the covenant/testament/will.

If no kinsman stepped in to redeem you prior to the jubilee, God did it Himself. Twice in the latter part of Isaiah it refers to this when it pictures God wondering that there was no man, and then His own bringing salvation. The surrounding verses speak of a) God being our Redeemer, His people being the redeemed, c) the desolate land blossoming as the rose (thus being reclaimed as in the jubilee year), and d) God bringing vengeance upon the oppressors of His people.

On the idea of vengeance being tied to redemption, it is interesting to note that often salvation/saved/redeemed is tied together with the idea of vengeance upon the oppressors. Indeed, the Hebrew word translated "Redeemer" is also translated as "avenger" in the phrase "avenger of blood," and as "kinsman."

As far as how much of all this the people understood in OT times, consider the wise woman whom Joab used to convince David to bring Absalom home. One thing she said was that God makes a way to bring His banished back home. She evidently understood quite a lot.