Discerning Whitewater

When it comes to the Bible, I am a novice. Nonetheless, I am in absolute awe of every verse I read and meditate upon. I told some friends last week that I started to meditate on the Psalms about a month ago. Starting with Psalm One, I would read it over and over, maybe fifteen times or so, to fully understand and grasp.

After a month, I am on Psalm 4. (There is a joke in there somewhere)

The love is one of the first things to take note of in the Bible. After the love, imho, comes the wisdom and the life lessons. Further down the road, imho, one starts to grasp the glory in the prophecies. Prophecies are (imho) God’s way of going that extra mile to show you his love and glory. He says it, then it happens.

The prophecies surrounding the Cross and the Resurrection astound. I am going to hit on two of them here.

The first involves Judas. Judas, of course, sold out Jesus to the Pharisees.

Matthew 26:14

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Matthew 27:1-8

27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. ² So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

⁶ The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. ⁸ That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 

These actions by the Pharisees, the men who claimed to know the Law and the Word, fulfilled the prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah, who lived 500 years earlier.

Zechariah 11:12-13

¹² I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.¹³ And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.

The other prophecy for discussion here comes from Genesis 22:1-19

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy^[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;^[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”^[c]

¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his^[d] enemies, ¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” ¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Have you ever been completely and totally baffled by why God the Father would ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?

It makes absolutely zero sense! Abraham spent his whole life wanting a son…. and to finally get one, at a hundred years old! Why would God ask this of Abraham?

(To the credit of a mentor) … it hits you like a ton of bricks when you realize….

That two thousand years later, another Son was sacrificed.

Then it all makes perfect sense.

Some people believe the hill that Isaac and Abraham climbed was Calvary. I tend to believe this could very well be the case.

The Creator of the Universe wants a relationship with you. Peace to everyone who reads this. And Love, and Grace, and Love, and Grace.

-mike