Doorposts

You know how God tends to work in themes? For instance, for basically all of 2008, God was teaching me about trust. At times it seemed He had orchestrated everything in the entire universe to fall into place just so He could teach me something and prove He was there, that He had His hand in my life and was working on me.


Recently, God's been teaching me about the Holy Trinity. This isn't something I've ever really been passionate about or even cared to go into in-depth before. I've always been of the opinion that God is three and God is one and none of us can ever understand it, so why bother. Just know that Jesus and the Father are the same, but different, and equal. And honestly, I still kind of think that if that's as far as most people want to go with it, that's fine. But for whatever reason, God has decided that I have to go deeper than that right now.


Over the past three or four months, I've learned tons about the Trinity - tons more than anybody probably wants to read or is interested in hearing about. Some of it has already turned out to be useful; some of it is definitely going to be useful - I already know where; and some of it I'm sure I've already forgotten. But what's really been jumping out at me this week in particular is the whole idea of Jesus existing from the beginning of time. He was there with the Father before creation, and His birth was planned before the beginning of the world. (So was ours, by the way, if you want to read my last post, but that's not the point.)


Our pastor was talking this weekend about the "crimson thread" woven through the scriptures - the thread that ties the whole story together from Genesis to Revelation - and how Jesus Christ really is that thread. I've always known that was true, because Jesus obviously fulfilled so many Old Testament prophesies and there are New Testament prophesies about His second coming still to be fulfilled, but this morning I was shocked to find some cool information of my own.
Last week, God impressed on my heart to memorize Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which says: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (NASB)


I have been seeing that verse everywhere recently, and have used it on so many different occasions. That's why when our pastor said something this morning about doorposts, it struck a chord with me. So I looked up the passage he was talking about. It was the command God gave the Israelites through Moses during Passover in Exodus 12:7, which says: "Moreover, they shall take some of the blood [of the lamb] and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it."


I had (I think) the coolest revelation today when I read that.


God commands that both the words of His commandments (in Deuteronomy 6) and the blood of the Passover lamb (in Exodus 12) be on the doorposts of His people's houses. And that is because they are the same thing.


The Word of God is the Lamb of God - Jesus Christ - and here He is mentioned in the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses long before Christ's birth! It might seem like a stretch if it weren't actually true that Jesus is called both the Word and the Lamb in the New Testament (and if we didn't know that God was just awesome enough to weave something like that into His book). I love how cool God is! It's like He put that in there just for fun.


Anyway, the whole point of this is that Christ was not a surprise to the Father - He planned for Him and paved the way for Him before the end of the first day. In fact, the Son was there with the Father, planning for His own birth and earthly ministry. But seeing those verses connected just affirms to me how much we as Christians are truly supposed to be called out by God. That's what the original Greek word for "church" means - "those who are called out." The Hebrews in Exodus were told to put the lamb's blood on their doorposts so that God would recognize them as His people and the plague would pass over their houses. In Deuteronomy we are commanded to remember God's Word - His commands and promises - and have those on our doorposts as well.


Is Jesus' name written on your house, your body? Are you visibly God's? Or I could ask the famous question: "If you were taken to trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" The evidence should be abundant - from the entries in our checkbooks to what's found in (and on, in this case) our homes to - especially - the way we behave. I am going to take these verses literally and start tacking scripture verses up on my walls just to drive the point home, but mostly as a reminder to take these verses to heart. God's Word should be written all over our lives, both literally and metaphorically. We as the body of Christ have got to start creating some more evidence.