In the face of adversity and tribulation, there are certain things that we need to trust. One of those is the truth that God always sees the bigger picture. He blesses us in a way that the maximum benefit is given to as many individuals as possible. We don’t always consider this when we pray. We just want Him to hurry up and make the trouble go away. James 1:2-4 The Message (MSG) tells us how to maintain faith under pressure. It says, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
There’s an old saying, I know you’ve probably heard it, because it goes way back. Whenever someone is dealing with a really rough situation, someone may try to comfort them by saying, “The Lord won’t put more on you than you can bear.” This sounds pious and back in the day it might have done the trick. People might have been really encouraged by this, but today, God has blessed us with greater revelation and knowledge regarding the truth. 1John 1:5 (KJV) tells us, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” God doesn’t cause our burdens; that’s the enemy’s territory. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus Christ tells us to bring all of our burdens to him and he will give us rest. Our Lord and Savior is the burden-bearer. He wouldn’t place burdens on us, then tell us to give them right back to him. This wouldn’t make sense, and everything that God does is magnificently intelligent.
Another thing we need to trust in the face of trouble is that Jesus Christ is always working on our behalf. God’s Word tells us in Isaiah 53:5 (NLT), “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” The Kings James Version of this verse says that the “chastisement of our peace was upon him.” This is telling us that peace had a price, and Jesus Christ paid it. I have some friends that are losing it constantly because of one problem or another. Some of them feel like they have to drink, smoke, or inject a substance to take their minds away from their troubles. Jesus Christ gave his life as a sacrifice for us so that we wouldn’t try to get a quick-fix from the world, but come to him for our peace. Isaiah 9:6 tells us that he’s the Prince of Peace.
Thousands of years ago, God began to prepare the hearts and minds for the sacrifice of Christ. He set apart Aron’s son as priests and told them to necessary steps for a peace offering. Why was the peace offering necessary? The peace offering was necessary because of sin. Like those of us living today, God’s people during the period of the Old Testament would at times go off on their own path, with little regard for His Word and how He had told them to live. He knows best, and His way is best. This disobedience would take them outside His covering of protection, peace, and fellowship with Him. The result of this would mean that the devil would bring all kinds of chaos and confusion into their lives; because chaos and confusion belong to his territory and are under his reign. God told Aron to set apart his sons as priest so that they could make a peace offering on behalf of the people who had sinned. This offering was a way of honoring God so that He could restore the peace they had lost. An important note, God is the Most Holy of Holies. Fellowship with Him must be holy, and the peace offering would help the people to maintain a relationship with Him.
God provided instructions for the peace offering in Leviticus 3:1-3a (NLT), “1 If you present an animal from the herd as a peace offering to the LORD, it may be a male or a female, but it must have no defects. 2 Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and slaughter it at the entrance of the Tabernacle. Then Aaron’s sons, the priests, will splatter its blood against all sides of the altar. 3 The priest must present part of this peace offering as a special gift to the LORD.” We can clearly see the parallels in the peace offering to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus Christ made. He is the Lamb of God. He walked upon this earth as a perfect human who never sinned; he had no defects. His blood was splattered when he was crushed for our sins, as we read in Isaiah 53:5. He was beaten so that you and I could be whole.
In Old Testament times, people would offer the peace offering, but would often do something to disrupt their relationship with God, and the seal of the peace covering would be broken again. It might seem to us to be a lot of back and forth, but through the process, God was preparing the hearts and minds of His people to have a deep understanding about holiness. He was helping them to appreciate what it means to present the best to God and to know the best in ourselves through Christ. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, we didn’t have access to the everlasting peace of God, but because Christ became the chastisement or payment for our peace, we can abide in it continually today. Praise God for the peace of Jesus Christ!■
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“The Peace of Jesus Christ”, written by JMack. 4theChristianMan.Com© 2018. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.