Ending this very different year, 2023 and starting a new one, 2024 is a bit heartfelt. Having a brown Christmas is very different for us, we need snow to help with our crops and grass for this upcoming growing season. We have been thankful for the warm, unseasonal temperatures as we are still in the process of weaning our calves. Plus some family health issues that we have no idea what the outcome will be. Then you throw in a very tumultuous year with all that is going on with Israel and in this world and you have a recipe for anxiety.
But we serve a God who knows all that is going on, He sees the big picture. He knows the beginning to the end.
I am sharing my last devotional for the year written by Nancy Guthrie. It really spoke to me of where my focus has to be and it really encouraged me and I hope it will do the same for you!
They Point to Me-December 31, 2023
The Old Testament is an uncompleted story—not just because it prophesies events that have not yet happened, but also because its problems are not resolved; its longings are not satisfied.
From before the creation of humanity, God knew that people would sin. He put into place a plan to bring sinners back into an unfettered relationship with Him. His plan was always centred in Christ, but to prepare His people to receive Christ and understand the significance of His work, God took His people through a number of good, but insufficient, remedies.
God gave His people the law that would show them how to live, but they couldn’t live up to it. The law only condemned. God gave His people priests who would meditate for them, but the priests were corrupt and defiled God’s Temple. God gave His people kings to rule over them, but the kings oppressed the people and worshipped idols. God gave His people prophets to speak His word to them, but the people would not listen.
What was needed was a perfect law-keeper, an all-powerful judge, a gracious king, an eternal priest, and a prophet who perfectly speaks the words of God. Throughout the Old Testament, it is as if God said, “Not this…not this…not this…” and then, in the coming of Christ, God said, “This is it! This is the One the law, the judges, the prophets, the priests, and the kings were all pointing to.”
Jesus said to the hard-hearted Jewish leaders of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” (John 5:39). Jesus was not merely speaking of the prophecies that spoke of His coming, but of the whole of Scripture. Long before His coming, God had established the offices of prophet, priest, and king, and it had always been God’s plan to save His people through prophecy, priesthood, and kingship. Jesus is the One in whom all these combine in perfect fulfillment.
🎚️You are the Alpha and Omega, my all in all. You write your law on my heart, you rule over me with grace, you speak to me the Word of life, and you represent me before the Father. You are everything I need to make my home at peace with God, now and forever.
Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament-Nancy Guthrie
Cilla 💕
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