tomb

Advent Reflections Week 3: The God Who is to Come

/ Jana

I went on a crazy rabbit trail with the Lord the other day.  About swaddling cloths. Really? Yeah.

Turns out the details matter to God and ultimately to us when He reveals them.  I have been deep diving into Garments (which will come later).  One thing led to another and the swaddling cloths came into focus where I learned two important distinctions for our Advent meditations.

Speaking of Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem:
“So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths,

and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  Luke 2:6-7

The first idea is specific shepherds surrounding the birth of Jesus were Levitical shepherds. As such, they were charged with overseeing the conditions of lambs so they would be “spotless and without blemish” for the sacrifices in the temple.

According to columnist, Linda Littlefield, “when the mother ewe was preparing to give birth, she was taken to a special birth place, or to the only cave designated, to give birth to the sacrificial Iambs.

This cave was kept sterile and clean for the arrival of newborn sacrificial Iambs. The newborn lamb was immediately wrapped in clean swaddling cloths to protect them and keep them from blemish and danger.”

So when the angels declared: And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a  manger, (Luke 2) these particular type of shepherds understood from these specific instructions that they were looking for the Sacrificial Child.

Using our spiritual imaginations, we see how Jesus came as the perfect lamb and God left clues, if you will, to help us discover the beauty and wonder of our Newborn King.

Now, look at this next beautiful detail.

After Jesus laid down His life, they again laid his body in the tomb (cave) and again wrapped His body in cloths. But the cloths this time are not swaddling cloths related to sacrifices.  Instead, these cloths, in variations of the Gospels in Greek,  say Jesus was “wrapped in linen cloth.”

Hold on a minute. Linen? Linen is what the saints are dressed in in heaven. Linen robes.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:7-8

Let your spirit connect these beautiful dots.

The swaddling cloths were for God’s only Begotten Son, the perfect lamb to be sacrificed.

The linen cloths were for the Beloved to be the first Resurrected of many brothers and sisters.

I don’t know about you. My heart about comes undone.

The God who is to Come. It was always the plan.
Talk about rejoicing.  Amen!

Let your heart worship with this song today.

Never Forsaken.

/ Jana / 1 Comment

I had this chilling God moment.  The kind when you are slicing potatoes one moment and weeping the next.

It started with a conversation a few days before.  A friend made the comment that she was disappointed in God.  She is hurting after some very tough life circumstances; it is a feeling we can all relate to at one time or another. But the overarching belief for this wounded soul is that God has abandoned her. Forsaken her.

Every time she says this, it causes a spiritual tsunami in my soul.  Her words trigger a flood of memories of desperate times in my own life, times of blatant sin, wrenching heartache, unmet dreams, or even waiting in-the-tension prayers. Yet through them all, God’s faithfulness was truly my only hope. Her unbelief grieves me.

I empathize with her hurt and questions — been there and done that. But what separates our path is I took those same questions and hurt right back to Him.  Where else would I go?  Who else could help me?IMG_2480

How could I run away from the only life and love I have ever known?

So with compassion but with relentless confidence, I continue to declare God’s faithfulness to my friend. I trust He will woo her in time.  I pray for my friend, and for us all, to become more steadfast, more determined to believe in the goodness of God.

Then God invaded my kitchen.

I had been listening to a “classic” song called,  “Arise, My Love.”  This song is so powerful and we sang it often in the church I was saved in.

Fast forward twenty plus years and I hear a line in that familiar song for the first time:

Could it be that His Father had forsaken him?

Suddenly I was overwhelmed by the Spirit.  I heard my friend talk about being forsaken, but then I saw Jesus walk over and lay down in the grave.  The words “Never Forsaken” were pressed into my heart.

And the thought came to me, did Jesus really believe that God had forsaken him?

“Could it be that His Father had forsaken him?
Turned his back on His Son, despising our sin.
All hell seemed to whisper, “Just forget Him, He’s dead.”

My friend sounded like this.  Just forget Him, He’s dead.  What about you? When you are broken and beaten beyond recognition, how do you take the next step? Who do you go to?

The Spirit continued our tutorial. What would prompt a man to die for others except for the hope of something greater to be gained?  In this holy moment, the Spirit showed me that there is only one reason Jesus was able to lay his body down. For me. For you. For all the world’s sin.

He was to willing to suffer and die and lay down because of one thing—He trusted His Father’s Heart. In my download, I saw Jesus laying in the tomb.  WAITING.

Jesus was so confident of the Goodness of God that He was willing to give everything, lose everything, because He knew without a doubt that His Dad, Our Dad, would whisper, “Arise. My Love.”

How then can we ever repeat the enemy’s lie? Forget Him. He’s Dead.

How can we ever say we have been forgotten, or abandoned, or forsaken if we truly see Jesus laying down in the grave, full of faith, confident in the Power of Love.

When Jesus said, “never will I leave you or forsake you,” He meant that with every fiber of His Holy Being.  We are Never Forsaken.  Hallelujah! The grave could not hold the king.

“The Earth trembled
and the tomb began to shake,
and like lightening
from Heaven the stone was rolled away.
And as dead man
the guards they all stood there in fright
As the power of love
displayed its might
Then suddenly a melody
filled the air
Riding wings of wind,
it was everywhere
The words all creation
had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of victory,
so loud and clear.

Arise, my love.
Arise, my love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you.
No more death’s sting
no more suffering
Arise… arise…

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell has been defeated.
The grave could not hold the king.”
Arise My Love by Newsong

 Art Source: unknown