Friday, December 19, 2014

The Greatest Story of Epic Deliverance Ever Told Part 1

In  the beginning  The Great I Am created the humans: male and female, He created them. Everything was perfect. “The Holy One from of Old” walked with the crown of His creation—the humans; and He loved them.

One  day, the humans were seduced by the Serpent—the sworn Adversary of The Great I Am; they  rebelled against The Great I Am, and in that act, became slaves to the Serpent and placed under a curse. The humans were driven out of the  presence of The Great I Am. The Great I Am, Who was also called The Everlasting God, had been at war with the Serpent, and the humans lost their honored place, and  became the Serpent’s slaves. The conflict that encompassed the whole of time and space continued.

image courtesy of Art Forge By: Luis Uzcategui

But The Great I Am, whose other Name is LOVE,  loved the humans still and promised that He will find a way to rescue them.  He declared that He will raise up His Promised One who will strike the head of the Serpent. He declared, moreover, that His Promised One will be the offspring of a female human. (“ And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and He shall bruise your Heel.” Genesis 3:15)

The celestial beings in the camp of the Everlasting God  longed to see how this will come about.

The Serpent who was also called The Great Dragon blinded the slaves and kept them in darkness (“The god of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers…” 2 Corinthians 4:4). They were condemned to death; their cursed bodies  subjected to sickness and decay, they  toiled away in  darkness and in the shadow of death all their days. The Dragon and his demon-cohorts  pitted  them against each other; the humans sank deeper and deeper into depravity so that they warred and killed even other slaves. Millions and millions of them perished.

But the number of the human slaves grew and multiplied with the passage of time, even as the curse remained unbroken.  To a few of  them,  The Great I Am, Who is also called The King of Kings, revealed the signs of the advent  of the Promised One whose coming will break the curse. These special humans they called prophets. Their work was to proclaim to all the slaves that someday the Promised One who is also called Messiah, will come, and they will know Him by the signs.  They declared to them the signs by which they will know Him: the manner and place of His birth, the circumstances surrounding His life, His purpose, and His message.

The human slaves dreamed of this Messiah. He was to be The King of Kings who will be born in majesty, with a golden scepter in His hand, riding on a great horse to rescue them. With His advent, they will be slaves no more.  In their mind, their Promised One will be born a  God-King. He will establish His kingdom on  Enemy  territory and banish the Serpent forever.

Some human slaves cursed The Great I Am for  leaving them as slaves. Some denied that He even existed. They grumbled among themselves, “Who is this High and Mighty One? He is nowhere to be found.” But there were those who watched and waited for the signs. 

For centuries and centuries it remained a mystery. How and when this will unfold: the coming of the Promised  One, the Messiah. Is it even true, what the prophecies foretold? The whole  fallen universe moaned and groaned for His coming.

But when the fullness of time came, The Great I Am sent His messenger to announce the long-anticipated coming of the One. The messenger appeared to  a female human. (“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:4)

The Promised One was conceived inside the bowels of the female human slave, a virgin, just as it was said. He was  born of one of the tribes of the humans: the tribe of the human Abraham, the tribe of the human  Isaac, the tribe of the human Jacob, the tribe of the human Judah, the lineage of the human Jesse, the tribe of the human  David as was prophesied centuries before His birth.  He was born in Bethlehem, of  Judea, just as it was said. (“But you Bethlehem…though you are little of the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2)

The Great I Am who was also called The One from of Old, the Everlasting,  became as one of the  human slaves. Thus he entered the kingdom of  the Serpent --  The King of  Kings  had no place to lay. The Mighty God, who was also called The Prince of Peace was devoid of any majesty, no crown of gold adorned  His head.  Unobtrusively, as angels watched, the Holy One from of Old descended upon the land of  darkness and the shadow of death. (For three human decades, the Promised King and Messiah  was, Himself, raised  a  slave.)

When word came to the Great Dragon that the Promised Deliverer of the slaves had come, It sought to kill Him. (“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and he sent forth and put to death all the male children…” Matthew 2:16)

But the Serpent did not have his way, as the story goes. The Promised One came to fulfill that for which The Great I Am purposed for Him at the very beginning.   

(“He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 18-19)

This is the mystery for which angels longed to look into and prophets searched intently  and with the greatest care (I Peter 1:-10-12)

It is the Story we have been given the privilege to tell. The Mystery from the beginning is no longer a mystery.

The angels of the Camp of the God -Who Is Called Love- proclaimed it throughout all the Camp of the Enemy on that night the Promised One came. The long anticipated news of  deliverance to the slaves was announced by  the hosts of the The Great I Am: a dazzling proclamation emblazoned through the expanse of the universe:

Glad Tidings of Great Joy to all the slaves across the Land of Darkness and Gloom

On this day your Deliverer is born, Who Will forever set you free!  He is the Promised One, the Lord!

What greater story is there to tell but this? Our deliverance has  come! Go, tell!

 

 

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