The Lord Provides

Last week, we hosted Vacation Bible School.

While this week is mainly about teaching children, I had the opportunity and the privilege to teach two of the four adult classes provided.

Trusting God was the theme for the week.

Each night, a different episode from the Bible was presented as a means of reinforcing the Biblical truth that God can always be trusted.

On the fourth night, my task was to teach the adult class focusing on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

While it was easy to see that Jesus trusted God completely throughout His ordeal, the class itself was not easy to teach.

After all, what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection are major pillars upon which Christianity rely.

In preparation for this class, I also learned something very valuable that I was able to incorporate into the lesson.

The scripture assigned for this class began with Simon of Cyrene being compelled to carry the cross for Jesus.

Matthew 27:32 (NET) - As they were going out, they found a man from Cyrene named Simon, whom they forced to carry His cross.

I was struck by that and was forced to think about what occurred preceding this.

Just prior to Simon carrying the cross, Jesus carried the cross Himself.

Think about this...

Jesus is God’s one and only Son.

God loves Jesus very much.

For the first part of the journey at least, Jesus carried the wooden cross to the place of His sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, another sacrifice was ordained by God.

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac,

Abraham loved Isaac very much.

Genesis 22:6 (NET) - Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together,

Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice.

What a remarkable example of something in the Old Testament pointing to an event in the New Testament.

The prophecy, if you will, continued.

In the Old Testament account, God spared Isaac and provided a ram, the male of the species, for the sacrifice.

Genesis 22:13 (NET) - Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

And there is one more remarkable prophetic event that took place.

Abraham gave a special name to the place where this took place.

Genesis 22:14 (NET) - And Abraham called the name of that place "The LORD provides." It is said to this day, "In the mountain of the LORD provision will be made."

"The Lord provides."

On a dark day in the New Testament, the Lord provided for our salvation in the only way possible.

He sacrificed His one and only Son as provision for us.

The Lord provided.


Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, June 22, 2012.

Please enjoy the contributions of my fellow Christian bloggers while you are there!

I’ll be back here on Friday, June 29, 2012.

Schedule subject to change.