Monthly Archives: July 2022

Bible

Why a sacrifice? Isn’t belief in a forgiving God enough?

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The image of the Passover lamb in Exodus 11 is a preview of the cross of Jesus.

In order to understand the picture, we have to look back to the first sacrifice. When human beings wanted to decide for himself what should be good for him, he lost the familiar relationship with God and hid from him. He realized that he had nothing to offer God and stood before God without anything. Mankind tried to cover himself, but it was only fig leaves.

God took an animal, slaughtered it, and gave them the skin for clothing. Only through a skin could man continue to exist before God. Man experienced the result of turning away from God’s orders. Someone had to die because of their disobedience. They were made aware of the consequences of turning away from God. Death is the result of missing the aim – of sin.

The Passover sacrifice adds a deeper aspect. The Lamb appointed by God protects from judgment. The point is to trust and do God’s instructions.

In Jesus we now have a place to put our sins away. At the same time, it is a place where the victim experiences reparation. God does not simply ask us to forget, but he carries our burden in Jesus. In this way he understands us even in our need because he has suffered through it himself. God is not a distant God, but a God who helps us. He is close to us.

At Passover, Jesus uses the bread of the Exodus and the cup of redemption as a sign of renewed faith. The Lord’s Supper is an expression of the belief that Jesus died for me on the cross as the Passover lamb and rose again at Easter and that I have a part in his resurrection power. Death does not have the last word in my life.

Death and resurrection of Jesus is an offer of reconciliation that we can step into. It is not about religious accomplishment and not about a fig leaf, but about trust in God. We don’t create a path to God, we take up His offer of salvation.

Islam

The Sharia

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Sharia is not a codified law. It has never been fully applied at any time or place.

Sharia is the entirety of Islamic law as recorded in the Koran, Islamic tradition and the interpretations of authoritative theologians and jurists.

The term “Sharia” is often rendered as “Islamic law” or “Islamic law”; however, this is incorrect because it suggests that Sharia is about a body of clearly defined laws enacted by a legislature, which is not the case: Sharia remains open to some interpretation.

This means that “the Sharia” cannot exist as a constitutional law. Continue reading The Sharia →

Bible

The beginning of a free life

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The tenth plague of Egypt (Exodus 12) leads to Passover, the first festival in the biblical calendar. Israel celebrates with Passover or Pesach, the beginning of a free life with the opportunity to build up their faith in God. The key to this story is in the first and perfect sacrifice.

God does not save because of ethnicity, but because of practiced faith. Faith is not about developing our ideas about God, but about listening to what He says.

The point is that the Egyptians trusted in other gods and despised the God of Israel. The attempts to wipe out Israel now hit them themselves.

Some think why should an animal be slaughtered, and the blood painted on the doorpost?

There are things in faith that we cannot explain as human beings because they come from a divine order, because they are important to God.

Perhaps it will help us if we remind ourselves that this story leads to the Jewish Passover festival. It was on this feast that Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, died. The death of Jesus is the fulfilment of Passover.

Bible

God is the light of the world

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God says to Pharaoh, “I am the light of the world. It’s terrible when I’m excluded.” In the darkness there is disorientation. There is no plague more terrible than total darkness in hearts.

God asked Moses to release the darkness so that the Egyptians might know their condition. It got dark for three days. This is the absolute disorientation. But in Exodus 10:23 we read, “The people of Israel had light where they lived”.

God wants to redeem people and show them the way out of darkness. Everyone chooses for himself whether he wants to remain in Egypt or join the people of God.

The plagues are about the revelation of the power of God against the power of the gods of Egypt. The first plague affected the Nile, one of the most important gods of the Egyptians. This is about the main god: the sun. Re or Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. This means that the sun itself is a god and therefore was not created by a divine being. From this sun god the pharaoh borrowed his power, authority, and name.

David writes in Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light and my salvation”.

In Isaiah 49:6 it says about the Messiah: “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

John writes in John 3:19, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.”