Beginnings

And when the woman saw

   that the tree was good for food,

   and that it was pleasant to the eyes,

   and a tree to be desired

     to make one wise,

she took of the fruit thereof,

 and did eat,

 and gave also unto her husband with her;

and he did eat.    Genesis 3:6 KJV

Here is one of the earliest pictures of Jesus in the Bible.  Many who are looking for power and proof of their own agenda miss this picture.  When we look for the love of God Himself, we cannot miss Jesus here.  The love of God was not only built into Adam, the first man, it was also trained into him in his daily walk with the Lord.  When Adam was faced with the devastating condition of sin in the woman to whom God had wed him, He did the thing that God Himself would do.  In love, he joined himself to Eve in the deadly knowledge of good and evil. 

When the Apostle Paul draws our attention to this picture, he reminds us that Adam behaved according to the godly power of love toward Eve.

For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 

And Adam was not deceived,

but the woman being deceived

      was in the transgression.    1 Timothy 2:13-14 KJV

Clearly, Paul is teaching that when the man took the fruit from the woman’s hand, his own knowledge of good and evil had been injected into him by her fall into sin.  What happened to her became intrinsic in him.  Eating the fruit sealed his death and joined him to her indelibly.  Mankind would continue to be defined as man and woman even in their sinful union.  God Himself would not undo this definition of mankind when He took on flesh and established Himself as bridegroom to all of humanity. Paul, again, declares that this union of man and God was chosen before creation:

For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother,

    and shall cleave to his wife;

    and the two shall become one flesh. 

This mystery is great;

but I am speaking with reference to

    Christ

    and the church.  Ephesians 5:31-32 NIV

Here, then, is a picture of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who is described as the one who “became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Unlike Adam, Jesus was able to join humanity in her condition and provide a new life through His shed blood on the cross.  The love of Adam was great and noble but his ability to join Eve was an act of hope; hope and trust that another could come with the power of everlasting life to set mankind free.

Jesus came to give us life.

In love, He calls to mankind from the cross.

Come to Jesus.

Come to the Cross.

Introduction

Beginning with Moses - Luke 24

When the dust had settled a bit from all the resurrection uproar on the first Sunday of New Creation, two of the disciples decided to hike it out of town and spend some time in Emmaus.  Less than 20 miles away, it was a full day's walk in hill country.  Somewhere along the road, Jesus met the pair and they did not recognize Him.  Learning that they, who had followed Him for years, were unable to grasp the message of the Old Testament prophets, Jesus preached the messianic truth to them from Genesis to Malachi.

The Old Testament is a collection of writings that were written mostly in the Hebrew language in a variety of forms.  Poetry, saga, history - of a sort, collections of poetic sermons and drama - of a sort, the Hebrew Bible is linked together by the inspired theme of Jesus...Savior...Lord...Creator.  This is the claim that Jesus makes upon the Old Testament: that it owes it's Holy Spirit inspiration to having Him as it's subject, object and most important verbs.

This blog is devoted to spending time in the Old Testament realm and searching for the answer to the simple question, "Where is Jesus?"  From Genesis through Malachi (or 2 Chronicles if your Hebrew Bible is so arranged), the answer is shouted and whispered, sung and chanted, wept over and exulted, hidden and obvious.  It is time to explore this ancient collection with the view that it belongs to Jesus.  He has made it His own since before the foundation of the world. 

Finally, it should be pointed out that the Emmaus road experience for those two disciples who were blessed to hear one of the greatest sermons ever preached, centers around the event that rocked Jerusalem; the resurrection.  But, still stuck in the top of the skull shaped hill was the bloodied cross which separates the Old and New Testaments in time while combining them intentionally.

Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.