My Twin Nephews

Here are pictures of my sister, Rebecca, and her husband, Brian, with their identical twin bundles of joy--Matthew & Noah. They were born 11 weeks premature last October. Noah is still in the hospital, but has been improving lately. He may be coming home soon! To see a close-up of pictures just click on the picture.

Cross Motif: The Bronze Serpent

The cross shows up again in Numbers 21:5-9. The Israelites are complaining (which seems to be their M.O.) about having no food or water. God gets sick of it so He sends fiery serpents that bite them and many die. The Israelites repent for complaining and beg for healing. God tells Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and put it up on a standard (usually depicted to look like a cross or a T). Anyone bit by a serpent could look upon the bronze serpent on the standard and be healed. See picture.

Fast forward to the time of Jesus. In John 3:14-15 He says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life." This is followed by the most famous verse of all time: John 3:16. In this case, it is Jesus who draws the parallel between Himself and the story in the Old Testament. Just as the serpent raised up on the standard offered healing to any snake-bitten Israelite who believed enough to look upon it, Jesus raised up on the cross offers healing of our greatest disease--sin and its ultimate consequence of death--to any one who will look upon the cross and believe. As it says in John:15-16 we can have eternal life by believing in Jesus.

The standard described in Numbers is a pole, ruler, etc. by which something is measured. Jesus equates Himself to the standard of the Old Testament. All that we say, view, and do should be measured against the standard set by Jesus' life and words. We can't measure it by our culture by saying: "Well, in comparison to most people today, I'm a pretty good person." Are you measuring yourself against those around you or against Jesus? He is the only perfect person. Our own paltry goodness looks pretty ridiculous when we view it next to His, so we must trust in His perfection and grace to get us to heaven rather than our own silly efforts. Like the Israelites, we need to quit our complaining or (insert your sin struggle here) and look to the cross for healing.

Cross Motif: The Bitter Waters of Marah Sweetened

As promised, here is my second installment regarding the repetition of cross symbolism in the Old Testament. The first one was in Exodus 11 during the Passover. This one appears several chapters later in Exodus 15:22-27. The Israelites have walked miraculously through the Red Sea. Then they travel for 3 days without finding water before they come to the waters of Marah. They are so excited to find something to drink at last. But wait--the water is so bitter they can't drink it. They begin complaining to Moses. He cries out to God. God shows him a tree which he throws into the waters and it causes the waters to become sweet.

The cross was made of a tree and I think a correlation is being made between God's provision of water to the Israelites and His later provision of living water (salvation) that Jesus promises will keep us from ever thirsting again (John 4:10). Christ's death on a tree has the ability to provide sweet salvation to turn the bitter waters of our souls (caused by sin) into fountains of joy.

The bitter waters were actually called "Marah" because that word means bitter in Hebrew. There is another mention of this word in the book of Ruth. When Naomi's husband and two sons die, she asks people to call her Mara because she believes the Almighty has dealt bitterly with her. The common name "Mary" in the New Testament is derived from this word as well.
The Hebrew name Mary means - "bitter" or "sea of bitterness." Check out
http://www.babynamescountry.com/meanings/Mary.html for more information. That is probably pretty surprising to most people. "Bitter" is certainly not the meaning that is put on the bookmarks they sell with names and their meanings. Not many would be proud of such a bookmark.

As you know, this is my name and it is actually appropriate. For many years I was bitter about some of the things that happened in my childhood. I allowed anger and bitterness to plunge me into depression. Although I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 5, it wasn't until I was around 21 that I was able to truly forgive the father who abused myself and my family. I finally figured out that bitterness and lack of forgiveness serves to further hurt the victim. The abuser couldn't care less. Forgiving transformed my life and personality. So many changes have happened that I hardly recognize the old me. It was the full acceptance of Christ's forgiveness of my sins that helped me to forgive others.

I read "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning that year and it helped me to see that I am a worthless ragamuffin. The very best things I've ever done are considered filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) to God. But to God that isn't even relevant. While I was still His enemy, He sought me out (Romans 5:8-10). Jesus, the only perfect sinless human being, died so that I could have eternal life. He was the only one who was qualified to do so. (I digress but I warned you about my ramblings: I hate all this ridiculous talk about self-esteem. People don't need to have self-esteem. They already regard themselves too highly. What we need is a good dose of God-esteem. God's opinion of us is clear--we are His enemies and our righteousness is worthless to Him (see the scriptures above for proof of this). The only reason we are of worth is because we are made in His image and we are made worthy through His Son, Jesus.) I was not cured of my bitterness and depression by thinking more highly of myself. I was cured by thinking more highly of Him and my standing before Him now that I am redeemed through Jesus.

Sorry, guys. This is turning into a book!

One more thing:
There is another word that comes from the same root as "Marah." Myrrh is an Arabic word meaning bitter. The highly valued aromatic gum resin of myrrh has a bitter, pungent taste and a sweet, pleasing aroma. You will remember from the Christmas story that this is one of the gifts the wise men brought to Jesus. Since myrrh was used in the burial process, it signified the eventual sacrifice Christ made when he died on the cross and was buried for three days. I find it interesting that myrrh is bitter to taste but sweet smelling. The whole bitter/sweet thing keeps showing up.

Matthew's First Easter

Mary's sister, Rebecca, gave birth to identical twins, Matthew and Noah last October. Noah is still in the hospital recovering because they were 11 weeks premature. Matthew has been home for quite awhile. They did not go out because of the bad flu/cold season. Finally, they brought Matthew to church for the first time on Easter Sunday. Dwight & I went to their church. I was able to hold the sweetie for a few minutes. I didn't get a picture of his Easter outfit because he demolished it with a very dirty diaper before anyone had a chance to really see it. The person holding him is Brian, his Dad. Rebecca is on the right in the picture with 3 people. I will post a picture of Noah and the whole family when I learn how to copy pictures from my sister's website.

Cross Motif: The Passover

I would like you to see the picture depicting the application of blood on the door posts so that this post makes sense. I could not post the picture because it is copyrighted. You can view it at the following link: http://www.bible-history.com/art/images/passover.jpg

The Passover was celebrated by the Jews the week leading up to Christ's resurrection. It was a reminder of the night the Israelites were able to escape slavery in Egypt to begin a journey to the Promised Land of Canaan. God made an odd request of the Israelites that night. They were to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the right and left sides of the door and the top. This is where that visual will come in handy. God was sending the tenth and final plague that would convince Pharoah to let the Israelites leave freely. God sent an angel of death to take the life of the firstborn son of all people and animals in Egypt. The night was called Passover because if the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, he would pass over that family and spare the lives of their firstborn sons. That is what happened that night and the Egyptians could be heard wailing over their dead. Pharoah's son was not spared either so he relented and let the Israelites go. Egyptians even gave the Israelites money and jewels to get them to leave.

The thing I find interesting about the Passover is that we already see the symbol of the cross with the blood markings on the doorposts. Look at the picture and imagine a cross superimposed across the door. Where the markings are placed is where the edges of the wood would intersect with the door (at the top and on the sides). Cool, huh! This took place 1,475 years before the crucifixion and long before the Romans had invented crucifixion on crosses as a method of capital punishment. Already, believers were trusting in the Messiah to save them. It is also symbolic that a lamb's blood was used because Jesus is described as the sacrificial Lamb. Many people probably don't realize that the cross is in fact a motif (a literary term meaning the repetition of a symbol throughout a piece of writing) throughout the Old Testament. It did not show up for the first time at the end of the 4 gospels. I know many shy away from reading the Old Testament because it may seem to them, well, "old." But to me it is rich with symbolism, truth, guidance, and lessons for life. I will be adding further installments to show where the cross shows up at other times in the Old Testament so stay tuned.

Here is another excerpt from Steven James' book "Story." It is an incredible poem about the Passover:

the sweet wine of your blood is on my lips,
the tender mystery of your body is on my tongue.

in the background of this meal i can hear
the desperate shrieks of the egyptians
and the gentle whisper of death passing over
the doorframe of my soul.

your heart was broken on that cross,
and your blood has soaked deeply
into the wood of my days.

remembrance.

At least 1,475 years later, the Father did not spare his own firstborn Son, so that all of us have the opportunity to be redeemed by His blood and given eternal life rather than death.

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