The Bible Series

March 12, 2022

We have spent the last year going through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, but before moving on to our next series, it was suggested to me that I do an umbrella type sermon to wrap up our “My Favorite Thing About” journey, so, now I have to put on my nuclear-powered thinking cap…..

What is my ONE favorite thing about Scripture? Well, really….. who can choose just one thing? In the Old Testament alone we get:

• God’s search for humanity

• The Patriarch’s

• God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt

• God wandering with Israel for 40 years

• The Fall of Jericho

• The Hesed of Ruth and Boaz

• David and Goliath

• Mount Carmel

• The 3 Friends in the Fire

• Nebuchadnezzar

• Daniel in Lion’s Den

• Esther

• The Rebuilding of Jerusalem

One thing? You must be kidding……..

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us - "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” …. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We sinful and broken humans have no ability to understand God or His ways. This truth creates an immediate problem. How can we be expected to love, trust and obey - have a deep abiding relationship with - someone we have no capacity to know?

Which brings us to My Favorite Thing About the BIBLE ---- Jesus.

In the book of John, Jesus revealed a surprising truth:

• John 1:18 - “No one has seen God at any time…..”

• John 5:37 - “And the Father Himself ….. you have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form”

God the Father has had no direct involvement with humanity, but what about all those Old Testament “meetings” between God and humans {a theophany}?

• Genesis 3:9 - “Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’

• Genesis 18:1 - The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.

• Exodus 25:1-2, 8 - The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering….. "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.”

• Exodus 33:11 - “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend”

• Joshua 5:13-15 - Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

• Daniel 3:24-25 - Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, O king." He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

(See also Genesis 2:16-17; 6:13-14; 12:1; 17:1; 18:1; Exodus 3:4-6; 24:9-11; 33:22-23; Numbers 12:6-8; Deuteronomy 4:33; Jeremiah 1:4-10).

There were pretty extensive God/human interaction going on in the Old Testament, but if it wasn’t God the Father, then Who was it?

In John 8:56-58, it is Jesus, Himself, who reveals who the God of the Old Testament was: “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

By identifying Himself as “I AM”, Jesus was literally claiming to be the Eternal God of the Old Testament - the God of Abraham and Moses, and the One who led Israel out of Egypt {see Exodus 3:14}.

The Jewish mob knew exactly WHOM Jesus was claiming to be because the very next verse tells us that they picked up stones to stone Him……

Years later, the apostle Paul reinforced Christ’s identity as the God who led Israel in the wilderness:

• 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 - “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”