December 21, 2015 - Substitution Patterns

As a coach of a 5/6 grade basketball team I am finding one of my greatest challenges is my substitution pattern. I am trying to make sure all the girls get good playing time while also leaving the right mix in to help the inexperienced girls truly learn the game by being put in the position to succeed…

God looked at the game of life and determined the perfect time to send in the Sub… this past week I wrote a devotion for our staff at the school and decided I would share it with you since it truly shows a perfect Substitution pattern! I hope you can learn something this week and are encouraged by God’s perfect timing…

Merry CHRISTmas to you! ...

 

I love teaching and sharing at this time of year because of the incredible truths found in the CHRISTmas story.

* The promises of "a Savior" and of "peace and goodwill toward men" that are found in Luke 2 with the message to the angels...

* The song of Mary found in Luke 1 that shares how Mary felt to know that the God of the universe took notice of her (vs 48)...

* The genealogies of Christ... (wait a minute, genealogies are incredible truths?)

Stick with me for just a minute... First, think about the Gospel. It is the promise that in spite of our "blood curse" from sin, God still planned and provided a way for us to be adopted into His family. Through the substitutionary death of Christ we, when we place our faith in His finished work on the cross and through His resurrection, are then seen with His righteousness and thus adopted into God's family as one of His own! (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Now the what does the genealogy of Christ have to do with that? Glad you asked...

I the book of Luke we see that through Mary's line Christ can be traced back to King David through David's eldest son Nathan; and David had received a promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-13 that his throne would not only be established but would endure forever. So Christ is a direct descendant of David but the problem is that the throne-line did not go through Nathan but had been granted through Solomon...

Matthew shows us the genealogy of Christ through Joseph and it too runs back to King David, but this time through Solomon! That would seem to seal the deal for Christ's rightful place on the throne of Israel... but there is a glitch. Matthew 1:11 mentions a king named Jecoiachin, in some places referred to as simply Coniah, and some spellings referred to as Jeconiah. In Jeremiah 22:30 we see that this king was evil and had a curse on his blood line that they would not prosper or see the throne... yet after his death we see that God makes a promise to Jehoiachin's grandson Zerubbabel (governor in Judah) that there is still hope and a plan... (See Haggai 2:21-23)

The name Jehoiachin literally means that "God will establish!" In spite of the evil of Jehoiachin and the blood curse of separation from the throne, God still was at work and provided a solution. Jesus was born in the line of the throne yet ADOPTED by Joseph and thus not carrying the blood curse of Jehoiachin!

Jesus is the only man that has ever lived that could rightfully claim the throne as His genealogy places Him in the right family tree... His virgin birth qualifies Him as the sinless Savior and the rightful King!

How cool is that? God will (has) established our needs through ADOPTION into His family!!! (And how cool it is to see the intricacies of the Scriptures!)