Lesson 7

Ladies and Gentlemen (if there are any men who actually read this blog), the King has entered the building...

We just finished lesson 7 and finally entered into the New Testament perspective on the promises of God. Today we came face to face with the promised "seed" of salvation that we've been hearing so much about in the Old Testament. Seriously, the Old Testment writers knew a thing or two abour marketing schemes...their narratives and visions of the future kingdom have kept us up at night wondering if that promised King would ever show up! Surely they must have wondered that too! So, by the time we crack open the book of Matthew, the hope for the coming Messiah is at a feverish pitch.

The arrival of the King means many things for us today. The biblical story tells us that it is through this one being, the perfect God-Man, that all the promises of God are fulfilled (2 Cor. 1:20). We see this most clearly in those three promises given to Abraham:

• Promise: Man would be God's People (a special people for the King). Fulfillment: Christ is the substitute for God's People on earth. Because he lived a sinless, perfect life, Luke calls him the new Adam (Lk 3). Matthew subtly links Christ to the image of a new Israel (Matt. 4:1-11).
• Promise: Man would live in God's Place (to dwell with the King). Fulfillment: Christ is the substitute temple on earth. He tabernacled among us temporarily (John 1:14) that we might come to know the life and transformation he offers our hearts (John 2:19; 7:37-38).
• Promise: Man would be the Recipient of God's Blessings (when submitting to the King's Rule). Fulfillment: Christ is the substitute vice-regent over creation - the King. In perfectly submitting to the law, Christ procures the blessings of God on our behalf. And he demonstrates to manking what the restored image of God in us should look like - how it possible to perfectly live as God's People in God's Place and under God's Rule so we might enjoy great blessings.
  

  

Pretty cool, huh? That Christ fulfills the Old Covenant so that you and I might live in light of the New. But we also talked about how the New Covenant applies to us today. How do we enter into and enjoy the benefits of the New Covenant. And we learned from Hebrews 9 that it was not enough for the King to tabernacle among us and live a perfect life. His perfect, innocent, blameless blood was required so that the righteous requirement of the law might be met and our sin forgiven. He is perfect, unblemished lamb and died on our behalf. And so we see that God's pattern for salvation never changed from the Old Testament to the New. Faith is still the vehicle for salvation and the pattern established by the blood sacrifice of a substitute. The difference in our lives is seen in the type of sacrifice that is offered on our behalf. Christ's blood is far superior to that of goats, calves, or cows (Heb. 9:13-15) because it solves the problem of sin forever.

We've been tracing the biblical storyline of restoration from Genesis onward. And we've seen that the life and death of Jesus Christ initiates that total and complete restoration that is needed. However, we've only just entered into the New Testament. There is still a lot more to the story of biblical restoration. The kingdom is still immersed in sin. There is still pain and sorrow all around us. We still struggle with sin in our lives. Surely, this is not the restored Kingdom we heard about in the prophets???!!!!!

Next week we'll look at the book of Acts. And we'll discover that the King's work on earth is not finished! We'll learn that the special King Jesus Christ has one more act by which we might more fully be restored and we might more fully enter into and enjoy His kingdom.

See ya next week, ladies!

Melissa

Lesson 6

Hi Ladies,

Can you believe it? We actually made it through the Old Testament. I hope I didn't give you whiplash as we sped through the Prophets at a speed that should only be considered illegal! Who would have dreamed that we could have summarized the prophetic books in only 30 minutes? We did it - but I'm sure you all still have questions or thoughts concerning today's lesson. Email me and I'll do my best to answer your questions (or at least point you in the right direction for answers...ahem...Pastor Randy anyone????)

All kidding aside, our lesson was a lot of fun. I hope each of you left the class today with the realization that the prophetic message is not just gloom and doom. Like two sides of a coin, the prophetic message holds both a warning and a 'seed' of hope. These two messages are inextricably linked and all hinge on the identity of the coming King.

Next week we will come face to face with that promised 'seed' of salvation, the promised King who will inaugurate the complete and eternal fulfillment of all those promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs of our faith. We've been talking about him for months. We've traced his path through the Old Testament - the Law, History, Writings, and Prophets. We've followed him throughout the biblical narrative and now we finally get to meet him! Are you as excited as I am? I think I have goosebumps!

If you'd like to read ahead, here is your assignment:

• Malachi 3:1
• Matthew 1:1-17 (this isn't in your workbook, but we will touch on it)
• Luke 2:23-28
• John 1:14; 2:19-21; 7:37-38
• Hebrews 9:6-7

All the King's Love,
Melissa

Lesson 5

Congratulations ladies! You've made it to the half-way point in our study Daughters of the King. We just finished Lesson 5 on Tuesday, tracing God's story for the world through the Historical Books of the Bible (Joshua - Esther). Our time together yesterday was rich with truths that you can apply to your own life story:

1. I must keep God at the center of my heart's affections.
2. My present life circumstances (no matter how painful) are not the end of my story.


God is at work in our lives, even when we can't see his hand. The Bible is clear. God has something special in store for all of his daughters - our final and perfect restoration into his image. At that time our hearts will be forever bound in the perfect image of his Son. But alongside that reality, we know he longs for more than just the hearts of individuals. In our studies of the Old Testament so far, we've seen that a greater restoration is coming. A restoration of his entire Kingdom, when:

• God's People will be restored to the Father perfectly,
• and be restored to God's Place, dwelling with God permanently,
• and be restored to God's Rule, worshipping Him and experiencing his blessings eternally.

But before we can get to all that good "restoration" stuff in the story, we must stay the course and read the story in the way the Biblical authors intended for it to be read. Lesson 5 ended on a low point, with God's people living as far from that Edenic ideal as possible. But we serve a good King, and he always gives his people a "seed" of hope. While God's people are in exile, God gives them a group of men called the Prophets. We will study the Prophets in depth next week in Lesson 6 - learning about both the men and their message. Here is our reading for next week:

• God's People: Is. 10:20-21/ Jer. 16:14-15/ Is. 44:1-2/ Is. 49:4-6
• God's Place: Ezek. 47:1-11/ Is. 65:17-18
• God's Rule & Blessing: Jer. 31:31/ Ps. 2:1-12

See ya next week!

Melissa

Lesson 4

Hi Ladies,

What an honor it was to have you today at Bible Study. It goes by so quickly, and I wish I had more time to visit with each of you. I hope you were blessed by our studies in Exodus and the rest of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). Our studies revealed to us that God gave His people three measures of grace as a way to partially heal their broken relationship with Him and their own broken lives:

{the Sacrifical System}

{the Law}

{the Tabernacle}

Despite the enormity of what these three measures of grace represent, we learned today that they were imperfect for they did not permanently and perfectly cover their sin. But our readings in the story of the King's Kingdom introduced these measures of grace for a specific purpose - to leave the reader anticipating a greater, more perfect restoration - a perfect and permanent answer to sin and a perfect and permanent restoration of the King's Kingdom.

• The reader cannot help but anticipate a better {Sacrifice} that permanently covered sin.
• The reader cannot help but anticipate a better way to experience the blessings of God's rule other than through the {Law}.
• The reader cannot help but anticipate a better place where they might dwell with God more intimately than in the {Tabernacle}.

Did you ever expect the Bible to employ the literary concept of suspense? Especially in the book of Leviticus - a book normally associated with regulations for sacrifice and worship. But as we've seen, the Bible is not just the Truth, but a Spirit-filled literary masterpiece as well.

I hope to see you all next week when we continue in our story of the King's Kingdom. We will take a whirlwind tour of Joshua through 1 & 2 Chronicles and study the iconic figure of King David in detail. So for those who want to take the Super Duper reading challenge, you have your work cut out for you! For those who want to read only those passages we'll study, read the following:

• Josh. 2
• 2 Sam. 7:9-11
• 1 Kings 12:25-33

And remember, I just might have a small surprise for one lucky reader! :)

See ya next week!
Melissa