Jesus: The Prophet

Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Many people may not realize how specific that God was in the Old Testament regarding the coming Messiah. Through Moses, God speaks of a Prophet coming who would be “like unto me”, meaning that this Prophet would speak as God. The words would be placed in His mouth by God, and His words would be life to those who followed.

Jesus claimed this position as the Prophet. All of Christianity hangs on whether or not this is so. If you can believe that Jesus is the Son of God then you can accept the atoning price of the cross and the empty tomb. If Jesus was just another man, though endowed with special gifts, then Christianity ceases to be about a Redeemer dying, and becomes a treatise on how to live a good moral life. Some great minds in history have felt this way, proving that great minds do not always stem from sanctified spirits. Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Gospels called “The Jefferson Bible” which told the story of Jesus without any references to healings or miracles, ending with Jesus being placed in the tomb. His version of Jesus was one of an ordinary man with an extraordinary message who taught us high morals. Jefferson was a brilliant statesman but a poor man of faith!

The Apostle John wrote of Jesus that He was the Word, “and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He further stated, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The disciples that followed Jesus firmly believed that they were not following a mere man, but that all of the Old Testament was robed in human flesh and was walking and talking with them.

Jesus said of Himself, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father” (John 8:38). These words place Jesus with the Father throughout the Old Testament, seeing all that the Father saw. Again, His words must be either believed as the truth or rejected as a lie.

While seeing Jesus as Savior, Healer, Redeemer and even Friend is not that difficult, it is the title “Prophet” that we rarely equate with Christ. The prophets of the Old Testament were always recalling the sins of the people to them. When Elijah was living in Zarephath, a widow woman and her son were providing for Elijah, as he had provided for them with the miracle of meal and oil. When the woman’s son fell sick and died, she asked Elijah, “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” (1 Kings 17:18) The common perception of the prophet was one who reminded you of all that you had done wrong.

The New Testament prophet holds a different office entirely. Paul wrote that prophecy was to speak to men to “edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Jesus certainly speaks these three things into all of our lives: he builds us up (edifies), he encourages us (exhorts) and he comforts us with His love and compassion.

When Christ is made out to be cold and distant and harsh, then He ceases to be the Prophet. Every believer can rest in the sweet words of the Master, and find rest for their souls. Remember, it was Jesus who called all of us to Him, for He would give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).

While finding Jesus in the Old Testament, remember that He came not to be an extension of the Old Covenant, but to establish a new and living way. Your Prophet, Jesus is speaking words to comfort you today. Allow His abundant grace and mercy to bless you and go in peace.

Jesus: The Power to Get Wealth

Deuteronomy 8:17, 18

Let it be known that there is no such thing as a “prosperity gospel”. That term is tossed about by saint and sinner alike, to describe the message that God gives wealth. In truth, there is also no “health gospel” or “faith gospel”; there is only the “gospel of Jesus Christ”, for gospel means “good news” and He is the only true Good News!

With that said, there is an undeniable and beautiful part of God’s goodness that is called “the power to get wealth”. In Paul’s great description of the gospel of grace, he says that the gospel is the “power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). The Greek word used for “salvation” includes all deliverance, preservation, safety and wholeness. When you enter into a relationship with God, it is no more by your own power, but by the power of Jesus Christ who has saved you. This salvation brings wholeness into every area of your life.

Within the context of our scripture God is not emphasizing the wealth, but rather the fact that all wealth and prosperity that they have will not have come by their own achievement but by His goodness. They will see their herds and flocks multiply, and their silver and gold as well (verse 13), but it will be God that does all of the providing.

For the blood-bought, covenant child of God, the blessings of heaven are just as inevitable, while the warning remains the same: you and I have the full assurance of heavens blessings, but none of them will come as a result of our own righteousness or consecration. As a son, you have all rights to the shoe, the ring and the best robe that your Father has to offer (see Luke 15 for the story of the Prodigal). It is always Him that gives the increase and then gets the glory, not because He is a glory hog, but it is so that all of your blessings will reaffirm covenant, “that he may establish his covenant” (verse 18).

Christ’s work at Calvary has entered all of us into a better covenant, with a whole new set of better promises. Jesus has taken the wrath of the Father against sin and thus we have righteousness imputed to us. We can now walk freely in His abundant grace and provision, knowing that He has given us all things freely and has done so through the finished work of Christ. Every blessing that God grants your way is His way of reminding you of His covenant of grace.

Give honor to God’s grace for every little thing that goes your way today. Even if you have a habit of thinking that these little things are coincidental; break that habit and see your loving Father behind all good things (James 1:17). As you praise Him for His abundant grace you can expect to see even more; for grace is most abundant when it is freely received (Romans 5:17).

Circumcision of the Heart

Deuteronomy 30:6

The sign of circumcision which God demanded of the Jews was a physical sign of a spiritual promise. Paul explained it as, “A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” (Romans 4:11). Abraham accepted circumcision as a sign that he was declared to be righteous upon his faith, and that this righteousness would be passed onto his children through circumcision.

Circumcision was the physical sign of the Covenant of God with Abraham. When man procreated, the seed had to pass through the sign of the Covenant, thus passing that Covenant on to the next generation. Paul stated that the New Covenant had no need of this act, for Abraham was actually declared to be righteous while he was still in uncircumcision (Romans 4:9), and that “them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised”, would have righteousness imputed to them as well (Romans 4:12).

God had a higher plan for mankind than physical circumcision. He introduces the concept of the New Covenant plan of heart change through Moses’ farewell speech to Israel in Deuteronomy 30:6 when he says that He will “circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live”. This was a new concept to Israel, that God could change their heart, independent of their ability to do the good or shun the evil. The usage of “circumcision” made it clear to them that God intended to do a sort of spiritual surgery on their heart, changing them from the inside out.

How spectacular this must have sounded to a law-abiding Jew! The law requires a man to change from the outside in. It is a show of will-power and determination, which is visible to everyone. If you are keeping the law, it is seen by all and if you are breaking it, that is known as well. Attention is always being drawn to your works or the lack thereof, even in the ceremony of the sacrifice. If men saw you coming to the tabernacle carrying a lamb, they knew that you had done something wrong. The law was holy and good, but it constantly exposed how unholy and bad that men were.

Grace, however, changes a man from the inside out. It must, for God promised the cutting of the heart instead of the cutting of the body. One of the promises that God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, regarding the New Covenant and the work of grace was “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you…And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). God saw the necessity of putting a “new heart” within man, and His very own Holy Spirit as well, so that man would live righteous without their own efforts being involved.

Does law teach us how to live right? No! Only God’s grace can do that, for Paul said, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11, 12). Grace does the teaching in us, for He is living there. Hallelujah!

The Blessings of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 28

Notice that I do not list a verse in this devotion, but rather an entire chapter. The reason for this is that this chapter is God’s conditions of blessings and cursing in the Promised Land for Israel. The first 13 verses are what God promises that He will do to bless Israel if they are obedient, while verses 15-68 show God placing curses upon them for disobedience.

The 27th chapter ends with 12 verses beginning with “Cursed”. These curses precede the great blessings of chapter 28 and they are representative of the curse coming before the blessing. Jesus bore our curse so that we could bear His blessings, thus our curse has been accounted for while we rest in His goodness.

When we read the 28th chapter we are reading conditional promises. If we do what is good and right then “these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:2), but then if we fail to do what is right, we get curse upon curse. This is typical language for the Old Testament as much of it is built upon the principles of God’s Law, which is founded upon a covenant between God and Israel. They were responsible for their end of the deal, and their end was to keep God’s Law entirely. When they failed, they received punishment for their breaking of covenant which are the multiple curses.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life, born of a virgin. His lifestyle, one of perfection and absolute stainless righteousness met every demand of God’s law. He stated, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). By living the law to perfection, Jesus could lay His life down as a sacrifice for others, and present His life as an example of law completed.

When the Father smote Jesus at Calvary, He was killing Christ as a sacrifice for everyone else. This was not possible merely by stating it to be so, but rather Jesus had to first qualify as a sacrifice. With no stain of sin in His life, He was deemed acceptable and then given the opportunity to walk away from the task. In Gethsemane, Jesus agreed to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, thus taking into Himself at the cross all of the sins of the world.

By fulfilling the law, Jesus was given all of the blessings of that fulfillment with none of the subsequent curses for breaking it. However, Jesus changed places with us, knowing that we could never fulfill the law. His fulfillment brought Him God’s blessings which He traded to us for all of our law breaking. Thus, Jesus bore the curse that should have been placed upon humanity, so that humanity could bear the blessings that Jesus had earned by His perfect lifestyle.

Now, when we read Deuteronomy 28, we receive all of the blessings of the first 13 verses because we have placed our faith in the finished work of Christ, receiving all that He paid for. No Christian should ever study the curses that are listed in this chapter and fear that they may be living under them, for what has been blessed cannot be cursed (Numbers 23:20). Why do some Christians insist on telling others that they might be cursed because of things that are going on in their lives? It must be because they do not understand just how finished Christ’s finished work is.

Jesus: The Prophet

Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Many people may not realize how specific that God was in the Old Testament regarding the coming Messiah. Through Moses, God speaks of a Prophet coming who would be “like unto me”, meaning that this Prophet would speak as God. The words would be placed in His mouth by God, and His words would be life to those who followed.

Jesus claimed this position as the Prophet. All of Christianity hangs on whether or not this is so. If you can believe that Jesus is the Son of God then you can accept the atoning price of the cross and the empty tomb. If Jesus was just another man, though endowed with special gifts, then Christianity ceases to be about a Redeemer dying, and becomes a treatise on how to live a good moral life. Some great minds in history have felt this way, proving that great minds do not always stem from sanctified spirits. Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Gospels called “The Jefferson Bible” which told the story of Jesus without any references to healings or miracles, ending with Jesus being placed in the tomb. His version of Jesus was one of an ordinary man with an extraordinary message who taught us high morals. Jefferson was a brilliant statesman but a poor man of faith!

The Apostle John wrote of Jesus that He was the Word, “and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He further stated, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The disciples that followed Jesus firmly believed that they were not following a mere man, but that all of the Old Testament was robed in human flesh and was walking and talking with them.

Jesus said of Himself, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father” (John 8:38). These words place Jesus with the Father throughout the Old Testament, seeing all that the Father saw. Again, His words must be either believed as the truth or rejected as a lie.

While seeing Jesus as Savior, Healer, Redeemer and even Friend is not that difficult, it is the title “Prophet” that we rarely equate with Christ. The prophets of the Old Testament were always recalling the sins of the people to them. When Elijah was living in Zarephath, a widow woman and her son were providing for Elijah, as he had provided for them with the miracle of meal and oil. When the woman’s son fell sick and died, she asked Elijah, “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” (1 Kings 17:18) The common perception of the prophet was one who reminded you of all that you had done wrong.

The New Testament prophet holds a different office entirely. Paul wrote that prophecy was to speak to men to “edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Jesus certainly speaks these three things into all of our lives: he builds us up (edifies), he encourages us (exhorts) and he comforts us with His love and compassion.

When Christ is made out to be cold and distant and harsh, then He ceases to be the Prophet. Every believer can rest in the sweet words of the Master, and find rest for their souls. Remember, it was Jesus who called all of us to Him, for He would give us rest (Matthew 11:28-30).

While finding Jesus in the Old Testament, remember that He came not to be an extension of the Old Covenant, but to establish a new and living way. Your Prophet, Jesus is speaking words to comfort you today. Allow His abundant grace and mercy to bless you and go in peace.

Jesus: The Power to Get Wealth

Deuteronomy 8:17, 18

Let it be known that there is no such thing as a “prosperity gospel”. That term is tossed about by saint and sinner alike, to describe the message that God gives wealth. In truth, there is also no “health gospel” or “faith gospel”; there is only the “gospel of Jesus Christ”, for gospel means “good news” and He is the only true Good News!

With that said, there is an undeniable and beautiful part of God’s goodness that is called “the power to get wealth”. In Paul’s great description of the gospel of grace, he says that the gospel is the “power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). The Greek word used for “salvation” includes all deliverance, preservation, safety and wholeness. When you enter into a relationship with God, it is no more by your own power, but by the power of Jesus Christ who has saved you. This salvation brings wholeness into every area of your life.

Within the context of our scripture God is not emphasizing the wealth, but rather the fact that all wealth and prosperity that they have will not have come by their own achievement but by His goodness. They will see their herds and flocks multiply, and their silver and gold as well (verse 13), but it will be God that does all of the providing.

For the blood-bought, covenant child of God, the blessings of heaven are just as inevitable, while the warning remains the same: you and I have the full assurance of heavens blessings, but none of them will come as a result of our own righteousness or consecration. As a son, you have all rights to the shoe, the ring and the best robe that your Father has to offer (see Luke 15 for the story of the Prodigal). It is always Him that gives the increase and then gets the glory, not because He is a glory hog, but it is so that all of your blessings will reaffirm covenant, “that he may establish his covenant” (verse 18).

Christ’s work at Calvary has entered all of us into a better covenant, with a whole new set of better promises. Jesus has taken the wrath of the Father against sin and thus we have righteousness imputed to us. We can now walk freely in His abundant grace and provision, knowing that He has given us all things freely and has done so through the finished work of Christ. Every blessing that God grants your way is His way of reminding you of His covenant of grace.

Give honor to God’s grace for every little thing that goes your way today. Even if you have a habit of thinking that these little things are coincidental; break that habit and see your loving Father behind all good things (James 1:17). As you praise Him for His abundant grace you can expect to see even more; for grace is most abundant when it is freely received (Romans 5:17).

Circumcision of the Heart

Deuteronomy 30:6

The sign of circumcision which God demanded of the Jews was a physical sign of a spiritual promise. Paul explained it as, “A seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” (Romans 4:11). Abraham accepted circumcision as a sign that he was declared to be righteous upon his faith, and that this righteousness would be passed onto his children through circumcision.

Circumcision was the physical sign of the Covenant of God with Abraham. When man procreated, the seed had to pass through the sign of the Covenant, thus passing that Covenant on to the next generation. Paul stated that the New Covenant had no need of this act, for Abraham was actually declared to be righteous while he was still in uncircumcision (Romans 4:9), and that “them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised”, would have righteousness imputed to them as well (Romans 4:12).

God had a higher plan for mankind than physical circumcision. He introduces the concept of the New Covenant plan of heart change through Moses’ farewell speech to Israel in Deuteronomy 30:6 when he says that He will “circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live”. This was a new concept to Israel, that God could change their heart, independent of their ability to do the good or shun the evil. The usage of “circumcision” made it clear to them that God intended to do a sort of spiritual surgery on their heart, changing them from the inside out.

How spectacular this must have sounded to a law-abiding Jew! The law requires a man to change from the outside in. It is a show of will-power and determination, which is visible to everyone. If you are keeping the law, it is seen by all and if you are breaking it, that is known as well. Attention is always being drawn to your works or the lack thereof, even in the ceremony of the sacrifice. If men saw you coming to the tabernacle carrying a lamb, they knew that you had done something wrong. The law was holy and good, but it constantly exposed how unholy and bad that men were.

Grace, however, changes a man from the inside out. It must, for God promised the cutting of the heart instead of the cutting of the body. One of the promises that God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, regarding the New Covenant and the work of grace was “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you…And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26, 27). God saw the necessity of putting a “new heart” within man, and His very own Holy Spirit as well, so that man would live righteous without their own efforts being involved.

Does law teach us how to live right? No! Only God’s grace can do that, for Paul said, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11, 12). Grace does the teaching in us, for He is living there. Hallelujah!

The Blessings of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 28

Notice that I do not list a verse in this devotion, but rather an entire chapter. The reason for this is that this chapter is God’s conditions of blessings and cursing in the Promised Land for Israel. The first 13 verses are what God promises that He will do to bless Israel if they are obedient, while verses 15-68 show God placing curses upon them for disobedience.

The 27th chapter ends with 12 verses beginning with “Cursed”. These curses precede the great blessings of chapter 28 and they are representative of the curse coming before the blessing. Jesus bore our curse so that we could bear His blessings, thus our curse has been accounted for while we rest in His goodness.

When we read the 28th chapter we are reading conditional promises. If we do what is good and right then “these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:2), but then if we fail to do what is right, we get curse upon curse. This is typical language for the Old Testament as much of it is built upon the principles of God’s Law, which is founded upon a covenant between God and Israel. They were responsible for their end of the deal, and their end was to keep God’s Law entirely. When they failed, they received punishment for their breaking of covenant which are the multiple curses.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life, born of a virgin. His lifestyle, one of perfection and absolute stainless righteousness met every demand of God’s law. He stated, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). By living the law to perfection, Jesus could lay His life down as a sacrifice for others, and present His life as an example of law completed.

When the Father smote Jesus at Calvary, He was killing Christ as a sacrifice for everyone else. This was not possible merely by stating it to be so, but rather Jesus had to first qualify as a sacrifice. With no stain of sin in His life, He was deemed acceptable and then given the opportunity to walk away from the task. In Gethsemane, Jesus agreed to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, thus taking into Himself at the cross all of the sins of the world.

By fulfilling the law, Jesus was given all of the blessings of that fulfillment with none of the subsequent curses for breaking it. However, Jesus changed places with us, knowing that we could never fulfill the law. His fulfillment brought Him God’s blessings which He traded to us for all of our law breaking. Thus, Jesus bore the curse that should have been placed upon humanity, so that humanity could bear the blessings that Jesus had earned by His perfect lifestyle.

Now, when we read Deuteronomy 28, we receive all of the blessings of the first 13 verses because we have placed our faith in the finished work of Christ, receiving all that He paid for. No Christian should ever study the curses that are listed in this chapter and fear that they may be living under them, for what has been blessed cannot be cursed (Numbers 23:20). Why do some Christians insist on telling others that they might be cursed because of things that are going on in their lives? It must be because they do not understand just how finished Christ’s finished work is.