Bringing Jesus’ Finished Work Back Into Focus

1 Kings 12:26-33

Jeroboam was a friend of King Solomon who was prophesied over that he would someday rule 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because of the sin of the nation. God was planning on removing the throne from the family of David temporarily to give to Jeroboam. When Solomon found out about this he sought to kill the young man, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he remained until the death of Solomon (1 Kings 11:40).

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam took the throne upon the death of his father and he alienated the people by threatening them with forced labor. This sparked a rebellion which brought Jeroboam out of hiding and into the throne over 10 of the 12 tribes. Only Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to king Rehoboam.

Rehoboam assembled an army of 180,000 troops to attempt to forcibly take the other 10 tribes back, but God spoke to him and told him not to start a civil war. Rehoboam obeyed and this act of nationalism brought a sense of pride to the people that Jeroboam viewed as a great threat.

Jeroboam sensed that the renewed pride in Israel would cause them to return to the house of Solomon and overthrow him as their king. He recognized the power that was found in the people worshipping in Jerusalem when he said, “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah” (1 Kings 12:27).

There was a sense of the power and the glory of God at the temple in Jerusalem. When you saw its beauty and its grandeur, you could not help but be overwhelmed. The sounds of the sacrificial lambs being offered; the smell of the flesh being consumed by the fire of God and the waving of incense by the ordained priests would cause you to recall the stories of Moses and Aaron and the glories of the house of David. Jeroboam knew that too much exposure to the presence of the Lord would cause Israel to leave him.

His plan involved making two golden calves and setting up altars to them. He placed one in Bethel and the other in Dan. The calves were not sins within themselves, but the people began to sacrifice to them and to worship them, thus sin was the result (1 Kings 12:30). He even copied the final Jewish feast day, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held on October 15; he held his on November 15.

Jesus stood in the temple at Jerusalem on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles and announced that if anyone was thirsty, they could come to him and drink the water of life freely (John 7:37, 38). Tabernacle’s was a feast that was both memorial and prophetic. It looked back on the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage and it looked forward to the dwelling of Israel as God’s chosen people over the whole earth. Removing this feast was a removal of the promise of God’s covenant. It was a dangerous breach against the “living water”.

Let nothing take your focus off of Jesus and His finished work. Satan will use this world to offer up other alternatives to your hope and your victory but only the powerful sacrificial work of Jesus at the cross provides your answer. Focus on what He has done for you, giving Him honor and glory for His miracle working power. The more you see His finished work, the more you bring Him back into focus, the more that it is finished in you!

Bringing Jesus’ Finished Work Back Into Focus

1 Kings 12:26-33

Jeroboam was a friend of King Solomon who was prophesied over that he would someday rule 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because of the sin of the nation. God was planning on removing the throne from the family of David temporarily to give to Jeroboam. When Solomon found out about this he sought to kill the young man, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he remained until the death of Solomon (1 Kings 11:40).

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam took the throne upon the death of his father and he alienated the people by threatening them with forced labor. This sparked a rebellion which brought Jeroboam out of hiding and into the throne over 10 of the 12 tribes. Only Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to king Rehoboam.

Rehoboam assembled an army of 180,000 troops to attempt to forcibly take the other 10 tribes back, but God spoke to him and told him not to start a civil war. Rehoboam obeyed and this act of nationalism brought a sense of pride to the people that Jeroboam viewed as a great threat.

Jeroboam sensed that the renewed pride in Israel would cause them to return to the house of Solomon and overthrow him as their king. He recognized the power that was found in the people worshipping in Jerusalem when he said, “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah” (1 Kings 12:27).

There was a sense of the power and the glory of God at the temple in Jerusalem. When you saw its beauty and its grandeur, you could not help but be overwhelmed. The sounds of the sacrificial lambs being offered; the smell of the flesh being consumed by the fire of God and the waving of incense by the ordained priests would cause you to recall the stories of Moses and Aaron and the glories of the house of David. Jeroboam knew that too much exposure to the presence of the Lord would cause Israel to leave him.

His plan involved making two golden calves and setting up altars to them. He placed one in Bethel and the other in Dan. The calves were not sins within themselves, but the people began to sacrifice to them and to worship them, thus sin was the result (1 Kings 12:30). He even copied the final Jewish feast day, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held on October 15; he held his on November 15.

Jesus stood in the temple at Jerusalem on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles and announced that if anyone was thirsty, they could come to him and drink the water of life freely (John 7:37, 38). Tabernacle’s was a feast that was both memorial and prophetic. It looked back on the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage and it looked forward to the dwelling of Israel as God’s chosen people over the whole earth. Removing this feast was a removal of the promise of God’s covenant. It was a dangerous breach against the “living water”.

Let nothing take your focus off of Jesus and His finished work. Satan will use this world to offer up other alternatives to your hope and your victory but only the powerful sacrificial work of Jesus at the cross provides your answer. Focus on what He has done for you, giving Him honor and glory for His miracle working power. The more you see His finished work, the more you bring Him back into focus, the more that it is finished in you!

For God So Loved

John 3:16, 17, 36

What a great phrase, “For God so loved the world”! There is a world of power and love that is hanging on that little word, “so”. He “so” loved us that He killed His own Son Jesus so that He would not have to kill all of us. He “so” loved us while we were living in sin and rejecting Him that He showed that love off on a hill called Calvary. That “so” love is why we are here.

I personally consider this statement to be one of the most important one regarding the grace of God, because it shows us how much that God loves each and every person. There is no love like sacrificial love that denies its own to save another. While a segment of the church clamors to put the Ten Commandments on the walls of our schools and courthouses, where is the focus group wanting to display John 3:16? The luster has been removed from scriptures regarding God’s powerful love for humanity, but we should polish them, and bring it back!

The 17th verse tells what makes verse 16 so great, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”. The reason that Jesus came was not to condemn the world, for they were condemned already. They could be no guiltier than they already were, and the knowledge of that guilt was not helping them to change in the least. Instead, Christ came to provide a way of escape from the guilt and condemnation. Through His payment at the cross, man would be reunited with God, having no wall of separation between them, if He merely accepts Christ by faith.

As we live for the Lord it is easy to forget just how loved that we are. Sometimes we may think that His love for us is tied to our performance for Him. If we do good, perhaps He loves us more, but if we do bad then His love wanes a bit. Because God “so loved the world”, He gave His Son to save us not only from our sins, but also from our performance. If Christianity were all about performance, then Christ’s death on the cross was a waste of time. Judaism was already about performance before Christ came and died, but His death was the culmination of His perfect performance. Because He performed perfectly, you and I partake in His perfection.

John writes, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). Our performance has nothing to do with receiving the life that lasts forever. Our faith in Jesus Christ is the sole requirement, while the lack thereof will place us underneath the wrath of God. Since God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus at the cross, there should be none left for us. Stay in Jesus by faith and you are free from any judgment.

To comprehend how great God’s “so” love is for us, we should consider the magnitude of His giving His only Son. There is no one on the planet that I would sacrifice my son for, so I cannot fathom this type of love, yet God did it so that I could go free. Receive a revelation of His “so” love for you today and watch as the chains of condemnation fall from your heart and mind.

Bringing Jesus’ Finished Work Back Into Focus

1 Kings 12:26-33

Jeroboam was a friend of King Solomon who was prophesied over that he would someday rule 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because of the sin of the nation. God was planning on removing the throne from the family of David temporarily to give to Jeroboam. When Solomon found out about this he sought to kill the young man, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he remained until the death of Solomon (1 Kings 11:40).

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam took the throne upon the death of his father and he alienated the people by threatening them with forced labor. This sparked a rebellion which brought Jeroboam out of hiding and into the throne over 10 of the 12 tribes. Only Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to king Rehoboam.

Rehoboam assembled an army of 180,000 troops to attempt to forcibly take the other 10 tribes back, but God spoke to him and told him not to start a civil war. Rehoboam obeyed and this act of nationalism brought a sense of pride to the people that Jeroboam viewed as a great threat.

Jeroboam sensed that the renewed pride in Israel would cause them to return to the house of Solomon and overthrow him as their king. He recognized the power that was found in the people worshipping in Jerusalem when he said, “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah” (1 Kings 12:27).

There was a sense of the power and the glory of God at the temple in Jerusalem. When you saw its beauty and its grandeur, you could not help but be overwhelmed. The sounds of the sacrificial lambs being offered; the smell of the flesh being consumed by the fire of God and the waving of incense by the ordained priests would cause you to recall the stories of Moses and Aaron and the glories of the house of David. Jeroboam knew that too much exposure to the presence of the Lord would cause Israel to leave him.

His plan involved making two golden calves and setting up altars to them. He placed one in Bethel and the other in Dan. The calves were not sins within themselves, but the people began to sacrifice to them and to worship them, thus sin was the result (1 Kings 12:30). He even copied the final Jewish feast day, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held on October 15; he held his on November 15.

Jesus stood in the temple at Jerusalem on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles and announced that if anyone was thirsty, they could come to him and drink the water of life freely (John 7:37, 38). Tabernacle’s was a feast that was both memorial and prophetic. It looked back on the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage and it looked forward to the dwelling of Israel as God’s chosen people over the whole earth. Removing this feast was a removal of the promise of God’s covenant. It was a dangerous breach against the “living water”.

Let nothing take your focus off of Jesus and His finished work. Satan will use this world to offer up other alternatives to your hope and your victory but only the powerful sacrificial work of Jesus at the cross provides your answer. Focus on what He has done for you, giving Him honor and glory for His miracle working power. The more you see His finished work, the more you bring Him back into focus, the more that it is finished in you!

The Worshipper Is Wise

1 Kings 4:29-31

When young Solomon sought God for wisdom, he did not request riches and fame for himself. He felt that as king of a great nation, he needed wisdom to govern; understanding to relate to people and their needs; and largeness of heart to show the compassion befitting a man of God. God granted him all of these things, and the riches and fame to boot.

When the author of 1 Kings relates to us the wisdom of King Solomon, he tells us that Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the children of the east country, of which the wise men would come at the birth of Christ, bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh. He was even wiser than all of those in Egypt, who were world renowned for their intellect in all things, including architecture and science.

More telling than his comparison to the wise men of the east or to the intellectual giants of Egypt is the author’s comparison of Solomon to the characters in verse 31 of chapter 29. It tells us that he was “wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about”.

Who are these wise men that are named by the Holy Spirit? What made them so wise? Notice their occupations: Ethan the Ezrahite was the author of Psalm 89, which spoke of the arrival of the Holy One; Heman was the author of Psalm 88, “O Lord God of my salvation”, and the choir director under King David; Mahol is the father of three of these men named, and his name means “dancer” in the Hebrew. Two of these men are song writers, one of them a choir director and a third one, a dancer. Solomon’s wisdom is being compared to worshippers! God viewed those who wrote of His greatness and glory and danced before Him as the wisest men in the world before Solomon.

When the believer worships the Lord, they do it, “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23). Jesus takes the worship away from an object and a formula and makes it personal, coming from the heart of man. No worship is proper worship that does not have at its core, the truth, which is Jesus. He is the truth, so to lift up Him and His finished work is to worship in truth, and that is to worship in wisdom.

God viewed the wisest people in the world as those who sang and danced of His goodness. You and I as believers can worship Him for His goodness every moment of every day, in our hearts. True wisdom is found in true worship. Do you have a pressing need today? Worship Him, and watch wisdom flow in your heart of understanding.

Be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove today. Remove an unholy fear of God and replace it, like Jesus did in the wilderness, with worship. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8). Go in grace and favor!