My Provider!

My pastor, Dr. Rob Decker, preached a message today out of my favorite chapter in the Bible, John 19. Chapter 19 is a crucifixion passage; when I read I often slow way down so I don't miss anything. There is so much background to this passage. For instance, it is so amazing to me that now that we have science and reasearch, we know that those who die of heart trouble are often found to have water around their hearts (Pastor Frank taught this one Resurrection Day several years ago.) It was blood and water that came out of Jesus side in verse 34. It was also from this passage that the Lord reminded me very clearly that Jesus could die on the cross for me not just because He was a sinless man, but because He is God. God died on the cross for me! The Creator of the universe died on a cross for me. WOW! Today, I learned another amazing truth that was new to me and blew me away.

The specific passage today was John 19:1-3; 17.
"So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands. ... And He, bearing the cross, went out to the place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha." (NKJV, emphasis existing)

Pastor Rob showed a picture of Golgotha. He pointed out that it really looks like a skull. You can see the sunk in eyes and all. He then said that it was called Mt. Moriah in the OT and took us to Genesis 22 where Mt. Moriah is mentioned, the passage where the Lord asks Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice. Wow! Awesome! Verse 4 says that Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place (emphasis added) afar off. What did he see? The Place of the Skull. I wonder if chills ran up his spine. Such an eery place.

Later on, Isaac asks Abraham where the sacrifice is and he says, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." Sure enough, God provided a ram with his head caught in the thorns. The sacrifice that God provided wore thorns on his head. Crazy Amazing! "And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided."" Prophetic! In that very place, God was going to provide once and for all.

I need to stop right there. This brings a whole new meaning to the word Yahweh. Before today's message, I thought, sure, God is my provider. He puts food on the table, and yes, that is true, but Yahweh, God is my Provider now means something so much more meaningful to me. He provided His Son in my place! PRAISE YAHWEY, GOD IS MY PROVIDER! at the place of the Skull.

By this point in the message, I was frantically writing cross references in my Bible. I knew that the story of Abraham and Isaac was a theophany (or is it a Christophany), but I did not know that this passage was so prophetic!!!

Pastor Rob transitioned his message to an illustration with his first born son. He said that he would obviously never give his first son to anyone so that they could take him up and kill him, but he said, "Lets just say that I did believe in your cause, and I did love you enough to give you my son. Wouldn't it be that much easier for me to give you his jacket and his computer and his truck?" In other words, giving up his son would be the ultimate gift. Compared to the value of his son, how much more likely would he be to give up those smaller, less valuable items. Then he showed us Romans 8:32. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" The point is, God is my Provider of the greatest gift of all, how much more willing is He to provide for me things of such lesser value.

Pastor probably moved into an application at this point in the message, but my mind was already far off applying it to my own life. I thought about my greatest prayer request lately and began to think about how, compared to the provision that God has already provided, my prayer request was so small. Then in the middle of my thoughts Pastor Rob's voice slipped right back in there and he said, "I've given you My Son." God gave me His Son. He is my own. My recent prayer request became so insignificant, because God already gave me His Son.

Pastor Rob's messages are usually posted on the internet sometime during the week, so I will try to add a link to it a little later. Thank you so much Pastor Rob for being a willing servant to clearly share the message of the scriptures. May God continue to bless the ministry He has given you.