As we approach Ramadan, we must understand what God revealed to man. Not only believing the revelation from God but believing what it means.

 

This having been said. What does God’s Word reveal?

 

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. He created man and woman, and gave them freely everything they needed. They were created to be in union with Him, because He is the only source of good. They were created for His glory, because only God is worthy of any praise.

 

But man fell from God when he sinned by choosing independence from God. Man took the forbidden fruit in direct rebellion to God's revealed word.

 

God, because He is holy and just, must punish all sin. But because God is gracious and merciful, He provided a way for mankind to be redeemed to relationship with Himself.

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Adam and Eve recognized their deficiency and hid from God; “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” (Gen. 3:7) This represents our own works. Man was seeking to justify himself in his own sight.

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But what did God Almighty do?

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“for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21)

 

Thus showing that it is not man’s estimation that we must be covered in, but God’s. God was also showing that only through the blood of an innocent being – a sacrifice - can man be found ‘covered’ and perfect in God’s holy and flawless estimation.

 

So then, if we must be perfect in God’s estimation, what then IS God’s opinion of man?

 

“the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

 

EVERY

INTENT

OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART

ONLY

EVIL

CONTINUALLY

 

Therefore the Prophet says of God:

“You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,

And cannot look on wickedness.” Habakkuk 1:13

 

And God declares what is coming for man:

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“Behold, all souls are Mine;

The soul of the father

As well as the soul of the son is Mine;

The soul who sins shall die. – Ezekiel 18:4

 

Why? Because:

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“He is the Rock, His work is perfect;

For all His ways are justice,

A God of truth and without injustice;

Righteous and upright is He.” Deuteronomy 32:4
 

The Day is coming when God will settle all accounts:

 

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire,
    and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
    and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment,
    and by his sword, with all flesh;
    and those slain by the Lord shall be many." Isaiah 66:15-16

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Forever:

“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” -Isaiah 66:24

 

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Therefore, seeing man must give an account to God, and he cannot be justified in God's sight by his own works, what can man do?

 

If you can hear, listen! If you can see, look!

 

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,

“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;

A King shall reign and prosper,

And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell safely;

Now this is His name by which He will be called:

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

- Jeremiah 23:6

 

How can this ‘branch’ BE our RIGHTEOUSNESS?

 

Let the Lord explain ~700 B.C.:

 

“He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:10-11

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Man will only be justified by God through God's own work. Nothing else can stand in God's sight in the Day of Judgement. God justifies 'many' through His Messiah by having Him 'bear their iniquities'!

 

Let the story of Abraham illumine us further: God told Abraham he must offer his son at Mount Moriah. And there let the God’s Word take us:

 

“Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

So he said, “Here I am.”

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:6-14)

 

What does this mean? 1,800 years before Jesus was born Abraham professed:

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"The-Lord-Will-Provide"

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What did Abraham’s faith look to? “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”

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A Lamb - a lamb for offering, provided by God

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But how?

“Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.”

 

The Ram represents a perfect sacrifice, that God provided, the horns represent power of the animal, the thicket the ‘curse’. The Ram is the sacrifice in the form of the Son of God, the horns are the power, the thicket around the horns is the curse. 

 

Therefore, what is the conclusion?

“Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide”

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Abraham believed God. He believed in God's provision. and therefore Scripture declares:

 

"And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6

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Therefore, what is God saying? Let Isa, or Yeshua, or Jesus, draw this to a conclusion in His own words:

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“as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17

 

And again:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

 

"But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep."

 

"To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."

 

"And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

 

"Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

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Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

"All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them." 

 

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. "

 

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

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“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

 

"But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep."

 

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own."

 

"As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep."

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"And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd."

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“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

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