FROM ISAIAH
36. Lord of the New Jerusalem
What a precious preview of events is given by Isaiah in his 2nd chapter, verses 2-4: “...the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains...and all nations shall flow unto it...and ...people shall say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob...for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
But where is Jesus in all of this? When John sees this final City in Revelation 21, he first is told , “The tabernacle of God is with men...and God Himself shall be with them...”(v. 3) So far, the same scenario as Isaiah. A location in a City, with God as its head. But look closer, in verses 22-23. There is no temple. Why? Because “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” There is no sun. Why? “For the glory of God...and the Lamb” lighten it.
You’ve heard perhaps of the Hebrew parallelism. It’s a way of saying two things but meaning only one. Thomas didn’t mean to say there were two persons in front of Him when he exclaimed to Jesus, “My Lord and My God!” He was giving two titles to the Man Jesus.
“God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” is another one. "God and Father" here are the same person, not two.
I suggest that the only way “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” can make any sense is to consider them the same, also. I have already shown that “Almighty God” is a title worn by Jesus! And we know Jesus is the Lamb. Something wonderful here!
37. Immanuel
The Name says it all. Isaiah 7:14, golden verse of the Old Testament, “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name, Immanuel.”
700 years later, Brother Matthew, in relating the fulfillment of that prophecy in the birth of Jesus (1:23), goes on to add the meaning of the Name: “God with us.” Now, how better can God tell us who this Jesus is?
38. Father and Son!
I imagine that this is my favorite of the declarations of Scripture regarding the Deity of Jesus Christ. Read carefully: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (9:6)."
I can hardly stand it! Time to dance in the aisles. Time to rejoice in our spirits, though the brain has been dealt another curve. This precious Baby, Jesus, is the Son. But in a way that I hope is becoming clearer through the reading of this multitude of Scriptures I have assembled, He is also the Father!
Enough said. Selah.
39. First and Last
(41:4) “...I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He.” says God.
Isaiah's God says He is first and last. But these are also the very words of our Jesus: “Fear not; I am the first and the last (Revelation 1:17)."
Doesn't get any plainer than that.
40. Redeemer
(41:14) “...I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer...”
But we have always looked to Jesus as our Redeemer, Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law...” Indeed! The chorus in Heaven praises the Lamb, Who “redeemed us to God by Thy blood.”
So here is God, redeeming us to Himself. We still want to see two People here, but our confusion comes because God actually became a Man. That Man is the one we see and know, because He is one of us. But we must constantly keep the eyes of the spirit open to seeing all that He is. He’s one of that other race, too. The race known as the “Godhead.”
41. The One and Only
This one is addressed to witnesses only! (43:10-11) “Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen...understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I even I, am the Lord; and besides Me there is no Saviour.”
Jehovah's witnesses, the true ones, are described here. Israel is warned about who this God really is. Take note, witnesses of all time.
Yes, for all time we are told that anyone claiming to be God, Lord, or Saviour is either blatantly false, or to be identified with this God. There simply is no other God. And Jesus, of course, claimed to be all three!
Get it, witnesses? If God is the only Saviour, how could Jesus be known as the one who saves us from our sins? If God is the only Lord, how could Thomas call Jesus, not only Lord, but God? And without a hint of rebuke from the Master.
42. The One to Whom Every Knee Shall Bow
Yet another solemn vow from Yahweh: (45:23) “ I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”
Then Who is this accepting such obeisance in the New Covenant, if He is not God Almighty? Fill us in, Paul: (Philippians 2:9-11) “...at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and...every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus is worshipped as God so that God can be glorified. Baffling concept, unless we see the two as one
43. Spurned by Israel
65:2-3 “I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people...a people that provoketh me to anger continually to My face...” Such horrid treatment was given to Yahweh by the Jews throughout their history.
Was Jesus involved in this? In a revealing statement recorded by Matthew (23:37), we see that the Word was indeed there. After a full list of denunciations of Israel’s religious professionals, it is as though Jesus is overcome by an emotional flood of memories. He could have learned some of this from reading His Bible, but the use of the pronoun “I” rivets our attention...He was there! He knew these people forever! Listen to the pain:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
This is the same God who complains through Isaiah of being treated so pitifully poor. The same.
FROM JEREMIAH
44. The Lord our Righteousness
The name of Jeremiah’s coming “Branch” is spelled out in 23:6: “...and this is His name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
The apostle Paul explains (I Corinthians 1:30): “ But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
Christ is our righteousness. He must be the “Branch”. He must also be “The Lord.”
FROM AMOS
45. The Lion
1:2 “The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem...” 3:8 “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?”
And who is the Lion in the New Testament? Revelation 5:5 tells us : “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book...and I beheld a Lamb...” Jesus, the Lamb. Jesus the Lion.
This borrowing of Divine titles is not accidental, nor is it presumptuous. Nor is it borrowing, to tell the whole truth. No need to borrow from One's Self.
Jesus, God.
FROM MICAH
46. The Everlasting One from Bethlehem
For a child to be born in Bethlehem does not make Him Divine. But Micah, in predicting the place of Messiah’s birth, adds a detail that can only point to Deity:
5:2 “...Bethlehem, though thou be little..., out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
He shall come forth out of Bethlehem to the Father. But in fact he was with the Father forever.
Habakkuk also (1:12) asks, “Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God?”
And we all answer, yes! The Lord God, Jesus of Bethlehem, is from everlasting!
FROM ZECHARIAH
47. The Coming One
We have long preached the coming again of Jesus. Jesus specifically states this in Revelation 22:7. But it is “the Lord” of the Old Covenant Who says to Zechariah: (2:10) “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee.”
I? I, Jehovah? Yes. One with Jesus, God shall reign among us, His people.
48. The Pierced One
That same Lord, of Zechariah, the only One he knew, the only One Who spoke to a prophet of God, says in 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced...”
The One we call Jesus was not merely an example of human suffering, but was God Himself being wounded for our transgressions.
49. Lord of the Mt. of Olives
Zechariah goes on to say that the LORD shall “go forth, and fight against those nations...and His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives...” (14:3-4)
Does the One we tend to call the "God of the Old Testament" have feet? Or is this just figurative language, poetry?
Not at all.
Luke records for us (Acts 1:12), that it was the mount called Olivet from which Jesus ascended to heaven. The angels let the disciples know that Jesus “shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) We assume that not only the manner but the location will be the same.
Jesus had the feet that Zechariah described, and those feet shall be touching down on the planet one day in the not-too-distant future.
50. The One Who Comes With the Saints
(14:5) “...and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” We have established above that the title “Lord God” belongs to Jesus as well as the Father. What about the idea of “coming with the saints” ?
This is established in Matthew 24:30-31, where Jesus says to His disciples, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Jesus is coming to earth with His gathered, raptured saints. "The Lord God shall come with saints." Jesus will come with the saints. Must be the same Person.
51. God of the One Name
This settles it! There is only one God! Zechariah puts it this way: (14:9) “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord and His Name one.” This agrees with the text so sacred to Jews, Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One.”
Revelation 11:15 says that the Kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and HE shall reign forever and ever.
He? Who? "Our Lord"? Or His Christ? Is Jesus not the future ruler of the planet? But Zechariah says "the Lord."
Only one way to resolve it all...
There is one Lord! One God! One Name! Jesus and His Father are One! Jesus is God.
