The Bible: Deliver Us

"The Bible" series - "A Story of God and Us All"

Episode 1 highlights:

Adam & Eve - sin separated (Genesis 3)

• Genesis 3:21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
• Hebrews 9:22b For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Noah - judgment and the ark. (Genesis 6)

Abraham & Isaac - God provided a ram (Genesis 22)

1. My life is an uncertain journey (Genesis 22:1-8).

• Isaac was on a journey. There was much he didn't understand. He was clueless as to what awaited him.
• That is also true of our lives. So much uncertainty.

2. My death appears certain (Genesis 22:9-10).

• Imagine Isaac's incredulity, horror during this scene.
• We know of Abraham's faith, but what of Isaac's? ("The Lord will provide a sheep...")
• Such is the position of every man and woman on earth.
• Romans 5:12 - When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
• From "The Bible" (Passover scene) - "Death is coming for us all."

3. My salvation has been provided (Genesis 22:11-14).

• God provided a ram, a substitute, a sacrifice in Isaac's place.
• It's what God does, faithfully, repeatedly, graciously leading us from death to life.

Moses - The angel of death passed over the homes marked with blood, out of Egypt, out of slavery, through the Red Sea (Exodus 12)

Jesus - God provided the Lamb of God, for you, for me, for all of us, to lead us from death to life.

• John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
• Hebrews 7:27 Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins.
• 1 John 1:7b The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Where the Story Picks Up Tonight: Exodus / Law Given / Wilderness Wanderings / Death of Moses / Joshua and Jericho

Rahab - "The story of us all."

1. My story starts out sad (Joshua 2:1-3).

• Jericho was a brilliant strategic choice; it was the world's oldest known fortified city, whose defeat would have struck terror in the hearts all around.
• But Rahab seems like a strange choice. She is referred to as a prostitute; not an auspicious start to her story, any more than hundreds of thousands of slaves in Egypt had any reason to hope for deliverance before the Exodus.
• This can be seen as a depiction of our situation: enslaved by sin. Dress it up however you like; it's not a pretty picture. Your sin may seem more "respectable" than mine, or Rahab's, but it's still ugly, and it's still slavery.
• 2 Peter 2:19b For you are a slave to whatever controls you.
• John 8:34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin."
• Romans 7:14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

2. My story includes a choice (Joshua 2:4-14)

• Rahab faced a decision. "Our lives for your lives," the spies said (v. 14).
• God is a God who specializes in setting captives free: Joseph, Israelites in Egypt, Israel through Judges, Israel oppressed by Philistines, Israel in exile
• Each of us faces a decision, too: Sin or salvation. Slavery or freedom. Death or life.

3. My story involves a scarlet cord (Joshua 2:15-21, 6:20-25).

• Rahab was saved by a scarlet cord hung outside the walls, evocative of the blood on the lintels at Passover... but symbolic of something else.
• She not only found a place among the people of God (Joshua 6:25); she also found a place of honor among the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5).
• A scarlet cord runs through my story: The blood of the Lamb that saved Isaac, the blood of the lamb that saved Israel's firstborn, the blood of the Lamb hung outside the walls of the city.

Application:

• By grace, through faith, I can be set free.
• Galatians 4:3-7 And that's the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.