Scripture says that “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:16-17)

Think about it: Jesus could have come right after Adam and Eve fell into sin.  Jesus could have come after Babel.  He could have come instead of a flood.  He could have come and done part 2 “The Return of Christ” immediately after His ascension.  But He didn’t.  Why not? How does it meet the definition of grace upon grace?

The Interlude has been filled with placeholders, awaiting the end. 
The Interlude has allowed time for learning and awareness. 
The Interlude—importantly–has been a time of growth,
of ministry and ever-increasing glory, as the Scripture says.

Apply the concept of grace upon grace to these verses:

2 Corinthians 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant– not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

Questions for further thought:

Plenty of people did not accept the Messiah at His birth, or death and resurrection.  What is the purpose of this Interlude before He returns when everyone will accept His status even if some still reject His forgiveness?

Why might God have not been content with rescuing just Adam and Eve? 

In what way is His glory magnified by the more people who are rescued? 

If one of God’s commands back in the Garden was also a blessing, “Be fruitful and multiply” as God’s image is multiplied over the face of the earth, why do you think Jesus might have tarried?

What will be the triggering event?  Read Revelation 6:9-11

Now think about grace upon grace and multiplication of God’s glory in these verses:

Hebrews 11:32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated– 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Lots of people, especially politicians and bureaucrats, like to refer to themselves as “civil servants.”  Too often that’s how those seeking power talk but not how they act once they are installed in a position of power.  Pastors, too, view themselves as servant leaders and many try to do it right.  But power has a way of corrupting people, even those of the faith.

Jesus knew how the game is played but He didn’t play the game.  He was the true servant King and in His birth, life, and ministry, even in His death, He showed us how a Servant King uses authority.

“Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

Questions for further study:

Would you say that modern intellectuals secretly despise a servant leader, viewing him as a patsy or a doormat, someone to be played?  Is a servant leader a sign of weakness or strength to them?  What about to you? 

In the Interlude between God’s loving provision and care for Adam and Eve in the Garden and the Return of the Messiah, God gave us a picture of the Servant King in Jesus Christ.  Read the following passage and identify the things a Servant King does.

Philippians 2:5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death– even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The world chooses the opposite of this kind of service.  Read back through the passage and identify how world leaders operate.

Would world leaders still prefer a tyrant king if they weren’t the kings, but among the subjugated instead?

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Making the nations prove the righteousness of God (which will in turn reveal and display the wonders of His love to those believed in His Name) … well, it is a task that has been long in coming and proving as hard as the hearts which will be forced to kneel before Him. 

Some will never repent.  They’ll do down on bended knee only begrudgingly and forced under the sheer tremendous power of God removing every last vestige of trust in anything else.  And we wonder why the world seems to be falling apart.  We’re witnessing the power of God crushing evil and a defeated enemy—the devil—lashing out and thrashing in his death throes, looking to take as many victims to hell as it can.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Consider what a revolutionary statement that is.  In the birth of Christ, this is what we have: Revelation of God’s glory.  God dwelling among us.  Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, the fullness of Deity in bodily form, Who took on flesh and clothed Himself with humanity, taking the form of a servant. He is the foremost and last…the Alpha and Omega of revolutionaries because He does it with grace and truth … which, along with love and wisdom, are God’s power commodities.

Not the kind of grace many in today’s world would welcome. In their arrogance of humanity, they don’t understand it.   Not the kind of truth they want to hear.  In their arrogance, they are gods of their own little lives and try to play god in the lives of others.  For them, it’s all about ruling other people and never about serving them.

Jesus bringing Grace and Truth is their death knell.   No wonder there’s a war on Christmas which celebrates His birth.

Questions for further study:

What tells me that we’re seeing the death throes of evil in this world?  It’s a simultaneous global uprising against the tyranny of man.  How else do you explain it, all around the world, all at once?  Lockdowns timed for Christmas and Easter.

Do you see it? It’s everywhere from Berlin, Brisbane, and Brussels to Paris, Poland, and Peru.  It’s A-to-Z as Argentina to Zagreb and everywhere in between. Is the news you’re watching even covering it?  If the news you’re watching isn’t showing you the global uprising against man’s tyranny, but covering it up, what side does that tell you that your news source is on?

Do modern intellectuals embrace the Virgin birth or reject it?  Why? I can’t emphasize this enough. There’s a reason why the Virgin birth is more than ridiculed. It’s despised. It’s because of Who was born.

What about so-called intellectuals believing that Jesus dwelled among us? Do they believe He was “God with us”?  What about Jesus being simultaneously the Son of Man and the Son of God?  Or His being God in bodily form?  Or do they dismiss Him as just another man? What does “Science” have to say about that? I’m all for science, but science is no god. Pray about your role in this war on Christmas and whose word you will follow, the Word before all time or something else?

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

He rules the world with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories of His righteousness
and wonders of His love

I’ve always thought this verse of “Joy to the World” was particularly powerful.  The Lord “makes the nations prove”…kind of a hymn equivalent of “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.  By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.  They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are deliverance and strength. ‘” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame.  But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the LORD and will make their boast in him.”  (Isaiah 45:22-25)

Only the Interlude makes clear that the birth of a baby is nothing to fear, but He was a revolutionary, nonetheless.  His appearing changed the entire course of human history by what He would do in 33 short years of His life and ministry.

Returning to the theme of the destruction of the Temple for a moment, Jesus foretold it and it happened.  What people did afterwards is the beginning of proving to the nations that idols are useless. ‘In the LORD alone are deliverance and strength.’  Until the moment of His return, there’s still time.  But soon the nations will rage in vain.

Haaretz recounts what the Jewish people did after the Messiah’s Advent and God destroyed the Temple (using Romans). 

“This [sacrificial system] ritual abruptly came to an end in 70 C.E., when the Romans put down the Jews’ Great Revolt and destroyed the Temple. At this point, what remained of the Jewish population in Judea had to decide how Passover would be celebrated.

(Time out.  Read that last sentence again in view of the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God.)

Continuing…

“The task of adapting Judaism to its new Temple-less reality fell to Rabban Gamaliel II, head of the Jewish Assembly – the Sanhedrin. With regard to the Passover sacrifice, Gamaliel decreed that the sacrifice should continue in family homes, with each family sacrificing its own goat or sheep.

(DIY)

However, other rabbis believed that the Passover sacrifice, like all the other sacrifices, could only be conducted by the priests in the Temple and that, like the other sacrifices, should not be conducted until the Messiah comes and the Temple is rebuilt.”

Questions for further thought:

Aren’t these the ways we deal with things?  Try to find a substitute to keep traditions going?  OR throw in the towel?  Give up?  Take a one-way-ticket to Quitter’s Field?

Haaretz continues by saying “ Within about two generations, the practice ceased when the anti-sacrifice camp assumed control and threatened to excommunicate those who practiced it. So, sometime in the second century C.E., Jews stopped the practice of sacrificing baby goats and sheep on Passover. Until recently, that is.”

The Jewish government has been actively stopping any attempt to resurrect the sacrificial system because of fears it will trigger a “Holy War.”  The article goes on to blame American Evangelicals for funding fringe Jewish groups trying to resume the sacrifices to usher in the Apocalypse.  Good grief. (Is it that easy to get Jesus to come back?)

What right-minded evangelical thinks that a return to animal sacrifice is needed after Jesus’ crucifixion? 

God will make the nations prove by first removing anything depended on as traditions and rituals…in place of Him. In the Interlude, God wants us to turn to Him and be saved. What is God removing in our culture to make the nations prove, the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love?

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Have you ever wondered why the Jewish people no longer have a sacrificial system undergirding their religious practice?

I can’t say it any better than Brandon Marlon, a blogger from the Times of Israel,

“Commencing with Aaron and concluding with Pinhas ben Samuel, the high priesthood suffered a ludicrous descent from the exalted to the farcical. This bathetic decline abruptly ended during the Great Revolt with the fall of Jerusalem and Titus’ destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.” 

The sacrificial system ended, too.  Again in Marlon’s words,

“In the absence of the Temple, the high priesthood as an institution went into abeyance and the regular priesthood became a nominal office whose members nonetheless retain certain privileges and responsibilities in modern Jewish tradition. Priests are the first to be called up for an aliyah to the Torah when it is read in synagogues; they officiate in the redemption of the firstborn (pidyon ha-ben) ceremony; they pronounce the priestly blessing upon the congregation during synagogue services; and they uphold the purity laws by avoiding contact with the deceased and refraining from marrying divorcees or prostitutes.”

Is that really all it takes? Being first to go up to the Torah? Officiating a firstborn ritual, or pronouncing a blessing? Avoiding contact with dead people and refraining (refraining, refraining!) from marrying divorcees or prostitutes? Where is God in all that? Think about Mary and Joseph doing all the Law required within the sacrificial system as they did everything “by the Book.“

Questions for further study:

Read Hebrews 10:1 “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming– not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

In what way did this annual display reveal both the high priesthood and sacrificial system as ineffective in practical terms and nothing more significant than a placeholder for drawing near to God between the Edenic sanctuary presence of God and His Messianic reign?

Scripture (Hebrews 10) continues

3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am– it is written about me in the scroll– I have come to do your will, my God.'”

8 First He said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them”– though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.

What does it mean He “set aside” the first to establish the second? In what ways was Jesus’ sacrifice both perfect and complete?

10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:1-22)

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

There were many placeholders in the Interlude as God’s presence never left us completely alone.  The sacrificial system was a placeholder and the priesthood, too…until the birth of Christ who would eventually be the Lamb of God sacrificed for sin and our final High Priest with the perfect sacrifice of Himself.  A good chunk of the Book of Hebrews points that out.

If there were Interludes for God as King, our Savior from sin, the ground as cursed, and the Sanctuary to meet with God as physical and earthly, there was also an Interlude for the ways we could contemplate approaching a holy God.  The priesthood and the sacrificial system were God’s temporary answer to point us to the need of Christ’s forgiveness bought on the Cross as only blood can cleanse sin and result in forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).

Our reliance too easily slips from truth of God onto the thing He gave us… onto what we can do instead.  What God gave us were placeholders to point us to the one thing we cannot do: save ourselves.  But what do we do? We rely on Bible study or church.  We rely on works of charity or almsgiving.  We rely on ritualistic prayer, etc.  Having the form of worship but empty, fruitless.

Imagine the horror the disciples felt when Jesus cursed the fig tree and proclaimed that the Temple would be utterly destroyed (Mark 13:1-2).  No wonder the priests were upset that cursing the fig tree and overturning the tables pointed to the end of the priesthood and the sacrificial system. It was the end of an era for things which were never intended to replace God.

Questions for further thought:

Read Mark 11:12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ “

 18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. 19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. 20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

 27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

If leaves were showy enough to be seen at a distance, even immature figs would have been present on a fully leafed out tree.  It is an acted parable to show judgment against barren practices.  All show and no fruit isn’t Jesus’ way.  Beginning at verse 15, identify what fruitless practices Jesus might have been thinking of (i.e. ones dire enough to culminate in the destruction of the Temple and the sacrificial system).

Withering from the roots is a way of saying the root system was dead.  Ask God to show you areas of fruitless practice and any reliance on earning salvation instead of on the Life-giver.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Think about Interludes as pattern-makers and placeholders.  Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden…out of one sanctuary, but not without God entirely.  He blessed Eve with her firstborn in the likeness of Adam and children after that.  A pillar of fire and cloud.  After the wilderness, the Promised Land.  After the tabernacle, a temple.  Each season of sanctuary showing us that everything external to us in the created world will never satisfy.  Nothing can contain God.

From the time of Christ onward, He is “God with us!” 

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Questions for further study:

Read Hebrews 9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place … 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. (See Hebrews 9:1-8).

You know what that means?  After the first Interlude, the Sanctuary changed from being an external temple built by someone, to an internal temple built by God through faith in Christ.  What did Christ do to allow this to happen?

Our hearts become His Most Holy Place–not as a visitor, but as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God whose presence can simultaneously fill every Christian’s heart. When did that happen? Read Acts 2.

Why couldn’t the Holy Spirit of God dwell in the hearts of the Israelites (or anyone else) before the Crucifixion of Christ?

Could our hearts have been called the Most Holy Place before the forgiveness bought by the blood of Christ?

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

All creation groans for redemption but creation was not intended to be redeemed on the Cross.  It’s no wonder that if people remain silent about the Messiah and His work, Jesus says the stones would cry out.  Better that people praise, but in their silence, the rocks celebrate the coming of the Deliverer to free creation from the curse of sin that was never theirs. One step closer!

“When Jesus came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes.” ( Luke 19:37-42)

The Interlude was in full effect.  The long-awaited Messiah had come to bring peace with God through His shed blood.  Jesus’ words harken back to Habakkuk 2 and how the creation experiences the brokenness of our sin and longs to cry out for liberation and give God all glory for His triumph of righteousness.

The Lord says, “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright– but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness…

You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.  Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice! Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea…The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. (Habakkuk 2:2-4, 10-14, 20)

Questions for further thought:

Why does creation long for the Return of Christ?

Scripture says that angels long to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12).  Angels, too, are created beings, but of a different order: a spiritual one.  They never fell under the curse upon the ground.  So why do you think angels are curious about human salvation? 

Humanity is experiencing an “already, not yet” of redemption.  Consider the role of the Holy Spirit.  In what way are people advantaged, but creation is not? At the Return of Christ, we are promised a new heaven and a new earth.  Let heaven and nature sing!

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

God punished Adam and Eve,
but He cursed the ground from which Adam was made. 
Every single man, woman, and child since that day
has been infected by sin as our legacy
and experienced fully as inherited, both a sin nature and the curse upon the ground. 
Except Jesus never inherited sin.  The ground was cursed, not man.

Hold that thought.

Jesus experienced the painful toil of hard work and hunger and sufferings, the curse upon the ground.  The issue of mortality too.  But it was all external to Him because He was without sin.

How was this possible? Let me speculate a bit.

Mary’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1) goes back to Abraham, not to Adam.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I think it’s interesting that Jesus’ other genealogy, that of his legal father Joseph, goes further back to Adam. 

Mary’s in Matthew shows the covenant promise of God
to His chosen people through Isaac.
Jesus is the Son of God.  
Joseph’s goes back to the Garden. 
Jesus is also the Son of Man.

Jesus alone was born without sin because He is the Son of God and birthed by the virgin Mary who is the progeny of Eve, the “mother of all living” in the protoevangelion of Genesis 3. 

Jesus’ actual birth father is not Adam’s progeny at all because God is His Father.

Questions for further study:

How important is the Virgin Birth to the Christmas story and God’s redemptive plan?

How does removing the Virgin Birth make Jesus no different than any other man under the curse of sin?

Read these verses and reflect on the importance of the work of a sinless Christ.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”(2 Corinthians 5:21)

1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. (1 John 3:5)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8)

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

It’s important for the whole of theology (and the Christmas story particularly) that Adam and Eve rebelled.  They had done what they’d been commanded not to do. But God did not curse them!  They sinned.  He showed grace.  He punished them and cast them from the Garden of Eden, out of His Sanctuary.  His ongoing, uninterrupted, unimpeded presence was over…until the birth of Christ, that is. 

Genesis 3:17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Dust to dust.  Mortality is real which is why we need a deliverer. 
The Interlude of mortality has been a long one…even for creation.

Creation must have thought (if creation could think, feel, and speak), “This stinks.  We didn’t do anything wrong.  It was that guy and that girl.  Mr. and Mrs. Pinnacle are the problem. You know, the pinnacles of God’s creation!  So why are we cursed?”

No use complaining.  God cursed the ground and we’re told creation groans under the weight.  “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22)

Questions for further study:

In what way is creation’s liberation tied to man’s?

Read Romans 8:22 “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”

If we didn’t need a deliverer, why would Jesus need to be born?

What about our mortal bodies needs to be redeemed?

What does a relationship with Jesus offer that baptism symbolizes? 

Read Colossians 2:9-15.  “9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Read Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Romans 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

===

Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.