Guideposts for Easter Week

Share Biblical Insights for Holy Week. Point others to the Light of Christ

[right click to open in new tab/window]

Holy Week–Hosanna!

https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/holy-week-hossanna-palm-sunday/

Holy Week, Beware Idle Conjecture

https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/holy-week-beware-idle-conjecture/

Remarkable Maundy Thursday!

https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/maundy-thursday-one-another-new-commandment/

Two Swords: Enough

On the Way to the Mt. Of Olives  https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/two-swords-enough/

Yeshua Ha’Mashiach: Crucified

Isaiah 52:13ff  https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/yeshua-hamashiach-crucified-2/

Good Friday–Dying for the Ungodly

Romans 5   https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/good-friday-dying-for-the-ungodly-2/

John 3:16…Keeping the Easter Message

https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/imghttpimg-2/

The Resurrection: Hope and Consequences

https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2018/04/09/the-resurrection-hope-and-consequences/

[Just to note, this is the 7th Anniversary of TextsInContext, my first post being the one at the top of this list. Thank you to all who have read or shared or followed.]

Yeshua Ha’Mashiach: Crucified

Isaiah 52:13ff

“Behold, my servant [Targ. adds “the Messiah”] will accomplish his purpose;

he will be high and lifted up, and very exalted.

Just as many were appalled over you–

his appearance was a disfigurement from the human

and his form from that of humanity–

so he will startle many nations…

He was despised, a rejection of people,

a man of pain, one who knows sickness

and like a hiding of face from him,

he was despised, and we did not pay attention to him.

But surely it was our sickness he carried,

our pains he bore.

But we considered him stricken,

smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was pierced through for our rebellion,

crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment for our peace was on him,

and his welts made healing  for us

All of us, like sheep we go astray,

each one to his own way we have turned;

but the Lord has caused to fall on him

the inquity of us all.

 From NICOT, Isaiah, by Prof. John Oswalt, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.

“High and lifted up are used in combination four times in this book (and no where else in the OT). In the other three places (66:1; 33:10; 57:15) they describe God….The same point may be made concerning exalted….only God can be lifted up. Is it here than being said that the nation of Israel [the explanation of some for ‘servant’] will be exalted to the place of God? Is it a prophet of Israel? In each case the answer must be no.  This is the Messiah or no one.”

53:7 …Like a sheep…

“the only extended metaphor in this poem involves sheep, the primary animals of sacrifice.”

“the Servant will be exalted to highest heaven…because it was all in order to carry the sin of the world away to permit God’s children to come home to him….redemption.”

“The text must still be read through the eyes of faith, but with that faith the mystery is no longer about how it is possible for sinful humans to have a healthy and whole relationship with God.  The only mystery is how God could love us like that.”

 

 

Other Pascha/Easter posts, here

The Easter Message and John 3:16

[Photo taken in Verona, Italy]

John 3:16…Keeping the Easter Message

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” ESV

Many [a vast understatement!] Christians have lost their grade school grammar and so [thus] have lost the focus of this verse.  A few weeks ago, I heard a pastor, using this text, emphasizing that God sooooooo loved the world.  The main focus of the verse was not even acknowledged [‘love’ replaced Christ as the focus, for further reading, (be a disciple/learner) see my book on Love, Prayer, and Forgiveness].

‘So’ or ‘Thus’: ‘in a manner or way indicated,’ hence, “God thus loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…”

Or “This is how God loved the world, he gave his son…”  He gave him up to the cross, for you, for me.  This is how God loved the world.  And the great confirmation of this act of love came on the third day with the greatest event in all history: The Resurrection.

“For God so [thus; in this manner] loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

[John repeats the same thought in 1 John 4:9  “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” ESV]

Addendum: Delighted to find this translation!

NLT: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”