Jacob Wrestling

I'm sure most of us have heard how this incident is always a comparison to Gethsemane

Christ wrestles with His Father & his fleshly will (or something like that) - to come out the Victor (Israel meaning He has striven with God and Man and wins)

Now if we continue to take Esau as Adam - then the story continues
as much as Jacob's 'mission' was to present Esau to the Father (Isaac)

now after the wrestling - Jacob is prepared to reconcile with horrible Esau who (he thinks) has come to murder Him
and in some sense - there ends the story of Jacob?

(read bit of this in someone's quotations from Chrysostom)

Reminder from Dev on Preaching

And he said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house." Moreover, he said to me, "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God,' whether they hear or refuse to hear." (Ezekiel 3:4-11 ESV)

Bit of nard from Spurgeon

Remember, that Jesus Christ when he comes to us to-day, as the messenger
of the Father, comes for no personal ends... When Jesus pleads with us, although
he urges us to render unto God our love and our obedience, yet God does
not stand in need of these as the householder stood in need of his rents.
What is it to the infinite Jehovah whether thou serve him or not? If thou
rebel against God, will he be less glorious? If thou wilt not obey the Lord,
what difference can it make to his boundless happiness? Will his crown
shine the less brightly, or his heaven be less resplendent because thou
chooses to be a rebel against him?... It is for thine own sake that
God would have thee yield to him; how can it be for his own? If he were
hungry he would not tell thee, for the cattle on a thousand hills are his. He
can crush whole worlds to dust, “or with his word or with his nod”; and
dost thou think he has aught to gain from thee? Thou alone wilt be the
gainer or the loser; therefore when Jesus prays thee to repent, believe thou
in the disinterestedness of his heart; believe that it can be nothing but the
tenderest regard for thy well-being which makes him warn thee. Hear how
Jehovah puts it: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”

If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you
wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if
you bury him, he rises again to bring us resurrection. Jesus is love made
manifest.

Faith & Laughter

A Sermon on Abraham & Sarah - from Gen 17-18

http://www.zionbishan.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2012-03-04-Faith-and-Laughter-Dr-Dev-Menon.mp3

Outward or Inward

We want inward change
But the gospel is external

So the temptation is to remove outward rituals or duties in the very real possibility that we begin to trust in them and not Christ

Yet we must have outward things come to us - eg sacraments, the Word - if things are to change inwardly

Here I suggest there has been a real neglect of brotherly relationships . That it is ok to establish dozens of rituals and practices, not as individuals or as necessary church structures , but rather as agreements between fellow Christians .

The body of Christ exhorting one another to set up different ways to increase faith in Christ, and adjusting and tearing down ways that have become stifling.

That way, everything remains external to the individual for the purposes of inward change

So when we put on Christ , we put on His body. - that is the Church. And through His body, the Spirit testifies from the Head to the members , returning to the head.

Thus while hierarchy is essential to testify to Fatherhood. The tops of the hierarchies - eg fathers or elders - must be flat , that they may counsel one another , speak the Word to one another and even set up fluid structures within the church to increase faith, which all are free to change once they have outlived their purposes

Not foolproof, as the whole group can work together in sin , but much better than an individualistic faith I would think.

The Deceit of Christ

If Abraham portrays the Father
And Isaac is the silent bridegroom

Jacob is the deceiver that comes in Adam's skin (Esau). To present his new people to the Father who allows Himself to be deceived.

Thus is God the God of Abraham Isaac And Jacob. And in it the whole plan of the Seed is shown

Resurrection morning

If Jesus died around 3 pm on a Friday, and rose on a Sunday morning ... that's 9 hrs till midnight, 24 hrs till the next midnight, which together is 33 hrs ... so if he rose at around 7am on Sunday, he would have been in the grave exactly 40 hrs.

Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure it works. For once, I haven't seen the Bible using the number 40 in connection with the time between Jesus death and resurrection. Secondly, apparently sunrise in Israel is no later than at 6:40am even in winter (poor young man that fled naked! he must have been freezing if it really was winter). Also, since it sounds that Jesus died just after 3pm, it might mean He would have risen rather slightly after than slightly before 7am...

The gospels all emphasise that it was on the first day around sunrise (probably dependent on whether you're looking at the time when people leave for the tomb, or arrive at the tomb):

toward the dawn of the first day of the week (Matthew)

very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen (Mark)

on the first day of the week, at early dawn (Luke)

on the first day of the week ... early, while it was still dark (John)

Maybe, we should be looking for the number 38 instead, which is also an interesting number (John 5:5). Then, Jesus could have risen at around 5am, and passover could have been in a more warmer time of the year.