WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?    PART II

I hope that this brief monthly Bible study will help you to have a deeper understanding of how God is trying to communicate with us through God’s Word.

Last time we looked at the gospel of John.  The writer of that gospel tells us that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  The word “dwelt” in Greek, which was the formal language of Jesus’ time, meant “tented” among us, not a surprising term for people whose whole heritage was rooted in wandering through the wilderness for 40 years after Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt.  The experience of the Hebrew people, the people whom we now call the Jews, was one of deliverance and freedom from that which held them captive. We call that event the “Exodus”.( You can read about it in Exodus 12.  Better yet, read everything up to chapter 12 also, so you can hear the entire story of how Moses ended up in the role of deliverer, somewhat against his will.  Read Exodus 3 for that story.) To free the people from their captivity in Egypt, with God’s power, Moses was able to deliver 10 plagues upon the Egyptian Pharaoh and his people, the last of which was the slaying of every firstborn in the land of Egypt.  That very night Pharaoh called in Moses and said, “Get out of here, good riddance!” 

The Hebrew people had escaped all that mayhem, however, because Moses had instructed them to slay a lamb and spread its blood on the doorpost of each home.  Then the angel of death “passed over” their homes so they would be free to leave without loss of life.  From that day forward the Hebrew people, now the Jews, celebrate that special event as the pivotal event in their history, and each year in the spring they celebrate the “Passover” meal where that story is recalled in a ritualistic way with the same special foods eaten that the people ate the night before they left Egypt.  They left so fast they also took bread that had not risen, unleavened bread, with them.

Because Jesus was a good Jew, he celebrated the Passover every year, first with his family, and later with his disciples.  That was the meal he was eating with them when he took the bread, as was the custom, blessed it, broke it and said these strange words, “This is my body which is broken for you.  Take and eat and each time you do, remember me.”  Then he took the cup of wine, representing the fruit of the vine, gave thanks over it, and said, “This is my blood of the New Covenant, shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins; as often as you drink it, remember me.”  This story of Jesus is the parallel to the Passover story in the Old Testament (often called the Hebrew Scriptures or the Hebrew Bible.)  This time Jesus is the deliverer through his act of sacrifice on the cross.  His body was broken, his blood poured out so that we might be freed from our sins, and delivered from eternal death. Through the Risen Christ, we receive new life. We enter into a New Covenant that God has made with us as God continues to act through his Word.  We saw that part of God acting for us through Moses, and later through the words of his prophets. This time God’s Word is made flesh in Jesus Christ, to once again provide God’s people freedom from the things that enslave us.  What sorts of things?  What constitutes sin?   Read next month’s “What Does the Bible say?”  Or feel free to ask me questions any time.                            

                                               Blessings on your study,    Nancy Gammill