Fulfilling the Law and the Gospels

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  Matthew 5:17

My favorite time of the day is at about 6:45 each morning when Deb and I sit in our sunroom, sip our coffees, and read and discuss the Bible together.  The past few weeks we have been focusing on the books of the Old Testament that were written after the exile to Babylon, and tell of the return to Jerusalem - Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.    These books are seldom read in worship and seldom studied in Bible class.  To be honest, they are books that I know the least about.
  
Yet as we read them, we could see God at work in the lives of the people who returned from exile as they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, and how the prophets Haggai and Zecheraiah spoke God’s words of encouragement to them when they began to doubt.  We saw God using a trusted member of the Persian King Darius’ court, Nehemiah, to return to Jerusalem decades later to lead the people to rebuild the walls amid the physical and political threats against them. Speaking of threats, we saw how God delivered His chosen people from potential extermination through a young woman that was queen “for such a time as this.”

But what I am finding most amazing is how many direct pointing forward to Jesus in these books!  From the preservation of God’s people through whom the Messiah would come, to the restoration of the temple which points forward to a greater temple (the church) which the Messiah would build for all nations to enter, to the Branch which will fulfill the priestly AND kingly offices (BTW - the Branch is Jesus!).

Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets - the whole Old Testament.  It points forward to Him, and what He would do for you and for me.  It’s not simply a history of God’s chosen people, but of God fulfilling His plan of salvation for the world, fulfilled in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

During this Lent, as we focus on the promises of the Old Testament, we see Jesus throughout, and it helps us to see the work of Jesus for each of us more clearly.

I’ll see you in worship!

​Pastor Cory 

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