I grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic elementary school and Catholic high school. I was an ideal kid. I was an altar boy and youth leader and all that (I am sure my mom wanted me to be a priest). And after all that, I never really knew what the Old Testament was all about. Over the last 11 years or so, I have learned more and more about what the Bible is about, so today's blog is going to be my version of the Bible for dummies (by a dummy).God created everything and it was good. Then He created man and woman and everyone lived very happily together. But for some reason (we will have to ask Him when we get to heaven), He allowed man to have free will. And man, being dumb, wanted more than happy and screwed it up. So here we are on earth and then this is where the story begins. We all want to get back to Heaven and God wants us there.
The Old Testament is way too long to summarize in a blog post, but here are some highlights for Christmas. There seemed to be so many trials and errors. God came to Abraham and made a covenant with the Hebrews. "I will be your God and you will be my people." Back then, when people made an agreement (a covenant) with someone, it was more serious than it is today; there had to be a blood sacrifice. They would take a spotless lamb, kill it, cut the animal in half, put the animal to two sides and both people would walk through. (Don't ask me why, but this is how they showed that both sides made a vow that could not be broken.) When God made the covenant with the Hebrews, He knew they couldn't keep their end of the bargain; He was the only one that walked through (He would hold up both ends of the bargain).
The Old Testament talks a lot about the blood sacrifice. If you sinned, if you owed money, if you wanted to make an offering, they would talk about taking a young or spotless animal and sacrificing it to God or the one you were indebted to. This was how you were to receive forgiveness, but the sacrifices were not enough to cover our sin. Then during the Passover, remember the "blood of the lamb" on the door frame.
After the covenant with Abraham, a bunch of stuff happened and then the Hebrews ended up becoming slaves to the Egyptians. This is where God sent Moses to set His people free. The Pharaoh did not want to let them go, so God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that if he didn't let the Hebrews go free, He would send a series of plagues. The final plague was the angel of death, sent to kill the first born of every family. This is where the blood of the lamb came back in. The angel of death would pass over a house if it had the blood of a spotless lamb painted on the door frame. The blood was spilled to literally save the people from death. All of this prefigured the sacrifice that Jesus would make. (This whole story points to Christmas. Do you see it? Jesus was the spotless lamb. It is His blood that we cover ourselves in so the angel of death doesn't take us).
Then came the Ten Commandments. God gave His people a set of laws to live by. This is how they would be set apart and how they would hold up their end of the covenant but they (we) couldn't do it. They couldn't be perfect. We couldn’t be perfect. We needed someone to be our blood sacrifice and to save us from ourselves (again pointing to Jesus. He was going to come as a man, obey the law perfectly, and be the spotless lamb). Christmas is so glorious because He did come down from Heaven to be like us, to feel what we feel (loneliness, disappointment, love, friendship).
The beautiful part is that Jesus is the Son of God. Think of a king coming to meet his people. How would it happen today if the king of a country went into town? Wouldn't he have a great procession with lots of people greeting him and waiting on his every need? Even though Jesus is King of Heaven and Earth, He came down as an innocent baby. Not as a king, but an infant in a manger because there was no room for Him in the inn. He did this to teach us humility.
But back to sacrifice. Jesus willingly went to the cross and died. But then He rose from the dead, opening the gates of heaven. He tore the veil and now He sits on the throne that was promised to David (wait, that is the Easter blog).
And let’s not forget all the Old Testament prophesies that Jesus fulfilled, written 700 years before He was born. In Isaiah: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
And also: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever
So this Christmas, when you are putting up your lights (you should have done this by now) or when you are out buying presents, cooking, watching football, or just hanging with family, think of the baby boy and what He means to us. We are His and it is very good.
I so enjoy working with you guys. Have a great Christmas and I will see you next year.
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