Author: Danny Panter

Danny is the Associate Pastor for NextGen Marrieds & Community Missions at FBCSA.

Back to the Garden

Re:Verse passage – 2 Chronicles 3:1-17 (day six). 

After some thought, it comes as no surprise that many of the design elements in Solomon’s Temple point us back to the Garden of Eden. Palm trees, pomegranates, lilies, and cherubim provide striking similar imagery.

Even the Temple’s position from east to west reminds us that God expelled Adam and Eve to the east of the Garden. And in order for God’s people to return into his rest and presence they must journey westward through atonement, sanctification, and the mighty cherubim who guard the way.

The temple is a clear picture of God’s plan for restoration; back to the Garden where there is free and full fellowship with God.

“Look, I am making all things new.”-Jesus, Revelation 21:5

Forever

Re:Verse passage – 2 Chronicles 2:1-12 (day six)

It will be a place set apart to burn fragrant incense before him, to display the special sacrificial bread, and to sacrifice burnt offerings each morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, at new moon celebrations, and at the other appointed festivals of the Lord our God. He has commanded Israel to do these things forever. 2 Chronicles 2:4

 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Hebrew 9:12

Forever. From the beginning God never intended for Temple sacrifices to fulfill what was required to atone for our sin forever. But they did point to the greater sacrifice (and high priest). Jesus died once for all, and rising from the grave, sat down at the right hand of the Father forever.

He is the fulfillment of 2 Chronicles 2:4.

Happy (almost) Easter!

Restoration

Re:Verse passage – 2 Chronicles 1:1-13 (day six)

There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it.

7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” 2 Chronicles 1:6-7

The progression is clear, from 1000’s of sacrifices at the altar to receiving word from God. Worship at the tabernacle in Gibeon illustrates that kind of beautiful movement towards God; we can only move towards him through repentance and atonement.

This highlights something else for us. The forgiveness we receive through Jesus, our once for all sacrifice, restores our relationship with God. The kind of relationship where God speaks to us, and we speak with him.

Repentance and atonement is never the end goal, restoration to our Father in heaven is; knowing the one true God and the one who he sent, Jesus. (John 17:3)

Please Help

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 29:1-11 (day six)  

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,  and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9

David did. This is why he prays, “Lord,…see to it that their love for you never changes.”

God is infinitely worthy of all our worship, our energy, our time, our devotion because he is infinitely holy and good and beautiful and majestic. When we capture even the smallest fraction of this reality we are consumed by him, and worship becomes as effortless as breathing. BUT our hearts are desperately wicked; we quickly forget the glory of God’s holiness and become enamored by the lackluster corrosion of our own brokenness.

Wickedness is blindness. It’s forgetfulness. Wickedness is a warped mind thinking God is mundane or nothing at all.  Wickedness is exchanging being enchanted by him, to being mesmerized by dead and dying things.

Without God’s help our hearts are always pulled by the gravity of our own wickedness. This is what Jesus meant by the truth will set you free.

Plans

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:11-21 (day six)  

The Tabernacle had a singular purpose, movement. It provided a way for a sinful and rebellious people to find peace with God, and move with him as his people. This came by way of regular atoning sacrifices made on behalf of individuals and the people. The sacrifices provided the means for the people to move towards God, in  a literal sense, both physically and spiritually.

The temple would serve the same purpose in Jerusalem, atonement, worship, movement towards and with God.

This was God’s plan. It has always been his plan, to make a way for us to draw near to God. The tabernacle and the temple would point to an even grander plan, a more perfect and eternal way-Jesus!

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one moves towards the Father except through me.”-Jesus

Fulfillment

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10 (day six)  

Solomon and his temple were both a disappointment. By the time the Chronicler was writing this history (around 400 BC), the temple was destroyed and there was no king on the throne. Nehemiah would oversee the temple’s rebuilding, and Herod the Great would see it expanded to new heights, only to be destroyed again a few decades later by the Romans.

Solomon was the first of a long line of disappointing kings, and the temple didn’t fair any better. Neither would fulfill God’s promise to David.

For God so loved the world he sent the Son… John 3:16

Jesus, the Son of David, who would forever sit on the throne and rebuild his temple in the hearts of men and women.

Promises fulfilled.

Rebirth

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:31-35 (day six)

“…no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” -Jesus, John 3:5

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It’s no wonder then the same must be true of us if we are to be his brothers and sisters. It’s always been faith over flesh. Faith in Jesus begets spiritual rebirth, hardwired with a new spiritual DNA. Soon enough, we can’t help but look like family.

Cautionary Tale

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:20-30 (day six)

When you set yourself against something, you will believe almost anything.

The religious elite sent their brightest from Jerusalem to determine the source of Jesus’ power. His ability to cast out demons and heal the sick was not in question; that had become self-evident. And yet they had also decided he could not be sent from God on account of his “authoritative” teaching. They couldn’t stand him. They were offended by him.

It is here where they abandoned all reason, leaving them to be believe the most abhorrent things about Jesus-that he was demon possessed and in league with Satan himself. In their extreme prejudice they were only left with a few options. And in their defiance they would much rather embrace the most offensive lies than consider the truth of who Jesus was.

The lies they believed made them feel comfortable, at ease with themselves and their self-righteousness, but ultimately it would yield the fruit of unrepentance.

This is a cautionary tale for all of us.

Forefathers

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:13-19 (day six)

The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Revelation 21:14

While these were normal men, in fact they wouldn’t have won any popularity contests, they hold a significant place in salvation history. These men were appointed Apostles, with a capital “A.” They became the benchmark of God’s revelation through Jesus, and the forefathers of the church. There have been none like them since, nor will there be.

They became the immediate messianic community, representative of the twelve tribes of Israel. A sign to the world of God’s promise through Jesus, delivered through the Holy Spirit’s direct revelation. Most of us, in fact, can trace our spiritual lineage to one of these Apostles (I imagine others can be traced to close followers of Jesus at the time, even though they weren’t appointed in the same manner).

They became missionaries, preachers, and disciple makers, traversing the known world, repeating a pattern that began in Mark 3-disciples appointing disciples.

We will see their names one day written on foundation stones of the New Jerusalem. Until then we are to be torch bears of the same light, carrying with us the same redeeming and historic revelation they were appointed to deliver to the world so long ago.

Lest We Forget

Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:1-12 (day six)

Lest we forget why he came, Mark provides a summary of the same. A wilderness of opposition. The religious elite with their rigged systems, their tower of Babels, exalting the self-righteousness of men. Silent and stone hearted before a not-so-subtle moment of grace, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to give a man life?”

And the people who followed him to the shore, clamoring for more, oblivious to his true mission. They didn’t want him, just the blessings he could give. An allusion to another day when they would celebrate him one day, and reject him the next.

And if the wilderness wasn’t dry and rugged enough, stifling enough, there were the demon possessed men yelling divine declarations, as if to control the Son of Man, or remind him whose territory he was in.

The truth is, they all three remind me of…me.

This is Mark reminding us, proclaiming, “And this is why he came to die!” There is no other way to turn hearts from stone to flesh, give sight to the blind, and set the captives free, but to put him up on that tree.