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Monday, June 6, 2011

Wrath of God against His Son for our sins

Numbers 28:5 (ESV)
also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil.


Both the fine flour and the beaten oil symbolize the suffering death that Jesus Christ went through. How so? First the fine flour. How do we achieve fine flour? We must sift it with a sieve and shake it violently. Jesus Christ went through the wrath of God, as flour goes through the sieve. As it is written:
Isaiah 30:27-28 (ESV)
Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; [28] his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck;to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

Jesus went inside this sieve of God's destruction and wrath that was due for His people. What happens to the flour when we shake it violently? It becomes disintegrated. Jesus became like powder and His heart melted inside Him because of God's anger and fury that should have fell upon us. Another translation for this sift of destruction in Isaiah is 'sift of vanity or nothingness'. Christ became as nothing, totally destroyed by the wrath of God. Let us adore Christ, and fear God for His anger against sin for which He killed His Son!!

Read again of this sift of God's anger:
Amos 9:9-10 (ESV)
"For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nationsas one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. [10] All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ''Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.''
Israelites thought 'disaster will not meet us'. They were complacent. But God shook them with the sieve of the sword and killed the sinners in Zion. Christ was counted as a sinner, though He knew no sin, and fell by the sift of the sword. He was not complacent but feared God every moment, but He did it for us. We are not to be complacent in sin, lest we find ourselves going through God's sift of chastisement. Let us die to sin and believe the Gospel every day, and be sober, girding up the loins of our minds.

How about beaten oil? Beaten oil is oil that is obtained by pounding olives in a mortar. The word beaten comes from the word that means the following: A primitive root; to bruise or violently strike:--beat (down, to pieces), break in pieces, crushed, destroy, discomfit, smite, stamp. We know how Lord Jesus Christ suffered. He was beaten, He was smitten, He was bruised:
Luke 22:63 (ESV)
Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.
But we know that it was God beating and bruising Him through these men for our sins. Just as the olive is crushed into nothing to give pure oil, our Lord was crushed under the fierce wrath of God:
Isaiah 53:10 (ESV)
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
It was the will of God to crush Him. He soul was an offering for guilt, that by the crushing He may provide the oil for us to see the light. His blood was poured out in this way for our sins, that by the fountain of His blood, we may be cleansed continually. Blessed by our Lord Jesus. We see then without His crushing, and bruising under the justice of God's wrath, we would have never seen light. It was His death, that gave benefit to us. Let us believe in Him, and thank Him forever.

We see then it was the mixture of God's violent shaking in the sieve of destruction, and His crushing, bruising and smiting of His Son that we are saved from God's wrath. Should we then continue complacent in sin? God forbid. Let us fear this wrath of God, always remembering that this is the pain that Jesus experienced for our sins. Forgive my sins, God, by the merit of what Your Son went through. Amen.

This law also reminds of the verse in Hebrews:
Hebrews 4:2 (KJV)
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it .
This Gospel of Jesus Christ must be mixed with faith in the hearers. Hearing of the word of God with out mixture with faith does not please God. The Gospel must be united with faith, that through it we become so convinced of its reality. Our faith must become the evidence that God exists, our lives must become the evidence that God has done such good for us through Jesus Christ. The hearing of the Gospel should give us the confidence to go to God, knowing that He is able to justify ungodly sinners like us. Hearing of the Gospel should give us the hope of heaven closer to our heart. Let us live by our faith in the Gospel, living in light of the good things God has done for us.

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