You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#697
The Divine Mystery Revealed (4)
by Jim Mettenbrink
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Most religions are enshrouded in
mystery. Many who believe in Jesus as the Savior, treat
the Bible as if it is a mystery to be uncovered. Even those
who want to know the exact date of the end times or Jesus coming
search the Bible as if God is playing a game of Clue
with humanity. Jesus said He would come as a thief in the
night (Matthew 24:42-44; 25:13). So why do folks
spend, yea, waste, so much time trying to figure out the date
of His return? One reason is man fears the unknown. Another
is folks love solving mystery.
The New Testament (NT) uses the
word mystery 26 times, thus there was a mystery in the Bible.
But the apostle Paul wrote, how that by revelation He [God-jm] made known to me the mystery (Ephesians 3:3). Paul
goes on to say it is the mystery of Christ (v4). By
reading the NT we can know the mystery was in the past, but no
longer.
Recently, we considered the unfolding
of this mystery. It was given ambiguously to Adam and Abraham
one of his descendants would be a blessing to all people
(Genesis 22:18). Isaac, Abes son, received
the same prophetic promise (Genesis 26:4), as did his
son Jacob (Genesis 28:14). But who would be the
blessing and how would mankind be blessed by the seed?
In Jacobs last days he bestowed
farewell blessings and curses upon his sons (Genesis 49).
Most unusual was his blessing upon Judah. In contrast
to the sterling faith and character of Joseph, the Egyptian grand
vizier, who saved the family from the regional famine (Genesis
41:37-44; 47:1-31), Judah was the opposite. He sired
an illegitimate son, by his widowed daughter-in-law (Genesis
38) and although he saved Joseph from being murdered by his
brothers, he concocted the plan to sell Joseph into slavery (Genesis
37:12-36).
Yet Jacob prophetically declared
The
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience
of the people (Genesis
49:9-12). The scepter implied Judahs descendants
would be kings, and Shiloh. Who had heard of Shiloh? Shiloh
would come in the future signifying the end of the royal lineage
from Judahs family. Shiloh
means Rest Giver. The next mention of
Shiloh is a location some 250 years later (Joshua 18:1).
So what is this rest giver? The mystery unfolds
.
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