FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

The Shadow of the New Pharaoh
I. The Edomite on the Throne of Jacob
The land of milk and honey has become a land of vinegar and gall.  The scepter has not departed from Judah, but it is temporarily held by a hand that is not of Judah.
Herod the Great sits upon the throne
a man of vast ego and ambition but possessing only an empty wasted soul.
He is an Idumean, a son of Edom, which means that he is a descendant of Esau.

He is The prophecy of Isaac fullfiled in Genesis 27:40 “You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”
The ancient wrestling match in the womb of Rebekah has concluded in a tragic inversion: Esau, the man of the flesh who despised his birthright and traded it for a bowl of red pottage stew, now wears the crown, while the true children of the promise groan under his heel.
​He has rebuilt the Temple of Solomon with marble and wood,  He has adorned it with pure gold.
But it is a whited sepulcher!
Outside, it gleams with the masonry of man; inside, it is full of dead men’s bones.
He has encased the glory of God in the stone of his own ego. He seeks to be the Messiah of masonry, while plotting the murder of the Master builder of the Universe itself.
The spirit of Cain is alive in his soul and
​The ear of Jealousy is always listening.
Whispers drift from the East—tales of Magi, those ancient stargazers, who have seen a light that Herod cannot extinguish.
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” they ask.
The question strikes Herod like a dagger.
A Born King? Herod was made King by the decree of Rome; he bought his crown with gold and blood. But who is this born king whose royalty is not acquired, but inherited by birth; not political, but eternal.
The counterfeit king trembles with the fear of his own demise, he sits upon a stolen throne and he knows it.
He must defend what he has taken, even if it means the murder of the Innocent.
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II. The Cry of Ramah
​The decree goes forth.
The sword is unsheathed.
In the little town of Bethlehem, the night is rent by a sound that chills the blood of history,
the wailing of mothers for children who will never wake.
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[ The TYPE:  THE NILE OF BLOOD ]
Cast your mind back, to the banks of the Nile! Do you see the shadow of the ancient Pharaoh? He too feared the multiplication of the Seed of the Woman.
He too commanded the river to be fed with the bodies of the innocent. Herod is but Pharaoh resurrected in Roman robes! The spirit of the Dragon is ever the same: if he cannot corrupt the Seed, he will seek to devour it.
​But look! Even among the slaughter of the innocents in Egypt, there floated a little ark of bulrushes. Moses, the deliverer, was hidden in the very waters meant to destroy him.
So too now! In the night, Joseph—the new dreamer—arises. He takes the young Child and His mother and flees.
But where does he flee? To Egypt!
Oh, the depths of the wisdom of God!
The land that was once the House of Bondage now becomes the City of Refuge. The Father sends His Son into the ancient iron furnace to hide Him, that the prophecy might be fulfilled once again: “Out of Egypt I have called My Son.” The path of the Exodus is being retraced, but this time, the Greater Moses is not going to lead the people out of physical slavery; He is going to free them from a spiritual one by fulfilling the law from their past and redeeming them from the slavery of their sins!
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III. The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness
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The years roll by like the waves of the sea. The tyrant Herod’s reign is finaly near its end, his body rotting and eaten of worms even as he still lived, a physical manifestation of the thoughts of his heart and the state of his soul.
He lays on his deathbed in agony, his many accomplishments meaning nothing in his end, because there is nothing man can build buy or become, that will bring his soul peace or buy him a pathway to heaven.
He has rebuilt the temple of Solomon larger and more splendid then Solomon could have ever dreamed of, yet it is even more empty than Solomons temple because it lacks the spirit and blessing of God.
Why,  because Herod’s only motivation was money,          
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus recorded the slaughter of 256,500 lambs for a single passover near the time of Jesus, that’s not including the bulls, rams and doves that were sold to the nearly 2.5 million people that faithfuly and annually traveled there in order to celebrate the required passover meal.

There was big business in the forgiveness of sins, and rome was quick to capitalize on it, so they installed Herod as the king of the jews in order to manage and keep the jews in line and to turn the temple system into the money making machine that it had become.
Part of accomplishing that was to remove the high priest that had been appointed by God exclusively to the lineage of Aaron, the tribe of Levi, and later, specifically to the faithful line of Zadok.
And install his very own high priest instead.
He changed the Priesthood from a divine calling; into a political appointment awarded to the highest bidder or the most compliant puppet.

Josephus records Herod’s treachery when he murdered the high priest Aristobulus III by drowning him in a pool.

When Jesus of Nazareth begins his mission of preaching the gospel of the good news to the people at the temple, it is not before a legitimate, biblical High Priest in the line of Aaron! He is speaking before Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas.
​Who was Annas? He was a political mafia boss! He had been appointed High Priest by the Roman governor Quirinius, and later deposed by the Roman governor Gratus. But because he controlled the wealth of the Temple market, he simply installed his five sons and his son-in-law (Caiaphas) into the office, pulling their strings from the shadows.
​They bought their authority with Roman coin. They wore rented robes. They served at the pleasure of the pagan empire. They were terrified of Jesus because He threatened their financial monopoly over the Temple slaughterhouse!

No one dared speak out against them because they had the power to remove you from the church, with just one harsh word or criticism, a single comment could cause you to be an outcast from your friends, your family, and even your employer.

​But there was one man that could not be intimidated, bought, or socially ostracized.
In the wilderness of Judea, where the limestone cliffs bare their teeth at the scorching sun, a Voice begins to thunder.
It is John the Baptist. He is no reed shaken by the wind; he is a pillar of stone and a trumpet of the truth. He wears the rough camel hair of Elijah, for the spirit of the Tishbite rests upon him.
He does not stand in the courts of kings;
he stands in the mud of the Jordan,
the boundary line between life and death.
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“Repent!”
​The word crashes against the rocks. It is not a suggestion; it is a summons.
It reflects and reverberates all the way through the canyons and into the temple walls themselves.
The Pharisees and Sadducees come out to investigate—they are the “vinedressers” who have stolen the vineyard. They stand on the banks, clutching their phylacteries, secure in their stolen positions.
​John looks at them, his eyes burn with the fire of the Holy Ghost.
“O generation of vipers!”
Hear the sting of that title! He does not call them sons of Abraham; he calls them the seed of the Serpent! He traces their genealogy back to the Garden, to the one who whispered lies to Eve and caused Adam to fall.
“Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance! Do not think to say, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you, God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham!”
​He points to the stones of the riverbed
perhaps the very stones Joshua set up as a witness!

Johns voice can be heard echoing in the canyons of Jericho, his words travel even as far as Jerusalem

Repent Repent REPENT !!!

While the jewish leaders commence the daily sacrifices and collecting of the peoples money because it is the long established system of the remission of sins from the days of Moses.
John continues to preach the truth to them free of charge.

Repent Repent REPENT

Isaiah 1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs.
12.  “When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.

14.  Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
I am weary of bearing them.
15.  When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
For Your hands are full of  blood.

16.  “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17. Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.

18“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be white as wool.

“I indeed baptize you with water,” he cried, the droplets falling from his hands like tears. “My baptism is but a shadow; it touches the skin but cannot reach the soul. But One mightier than I is coming! I am not worthy to stoop down and loose even the strap of His sandal.”
​”He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire! His winnowing fan is in His hand!”
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Imagine the terrifying honesty of this image! The Messiah does not come merely to gather; He comes to separate.
He stands upon the threshing floor of the world. With one mighty heave, He tosses the souls of men into the winds of eternity. The wheat—the weighty, substantial souls of faith falls to the ground to be put into His barn.
But the chaff—the light, empty husks of hypocrisy—He will burn with unquenchable, never-ending fire!

Wash yourselves and be cleaned from within and without,
Let the water of judgment cover your flesh as it did the giants of old
when God drowned the world that once was.
But from the deluge arose the new man on dry ground, saved by the ark of the LORD.
Let God divide you as he did the waters of the red sea.
Let the water Wash away the world and  replace it with his word
​Drown the body, save the soul
Let the flesh die so the spirit can be born free.
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llll. The Echo of the Prophets from the Past

Let us travel back to the time of Isaiah
To the vision he had of seraphim, which means the “burning ones.”
a type of fiery serpantine like creature with wings standing over the throne of the LORD.

 Isaiah chapter 6
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 
2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”

4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”

8 I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,
who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people:

( Now we see Isaiah standing on the ledge of a rock speaking out to a crowd of people, loudly and firmly the words given to him by the Lord, his voice echoes across the landscape of time, even to the time of John)

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

( then we see John the Baptist standing in the jordan river saying the same scripture in the same prophetic voice and tone.)
JOHN THE BAPTIST:“Keep on seeing, but do not perceive!”

​(The two prophets, separated by nearly eight hundred years, are suddenly speaking in a perfectly synchronized, stereophonic warning to the dying world.)
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ISAIAH:“Make the heart of this people dull…”
JOHN:“And their ears heavy…”
ISAIAH:“And shut their eyes…”
JOHN:“Lest they see with their eyes…”
ISAIAH:“And hear with their ears…”
JOHN:“And understand with their heart…”

( Jesus, walking through the canyons on his way to the Jordan, can hear the voice of John and begins saying the scripture with him)
”and turn, and I would heal them “

V.  The Spirit of God once again Hovers over the Face of the Waters.

As John stood in the river he beconed the people into the water by preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, but his eyes were fixed on the horizon of history and the significance of this moment in time.

The next day, while the sun beat down upon the Jordan, suddenly, John’s spirit leaped within him. He saw a figure approaching unassuming, humble and kind, yet carrying the weight of the moment.
“Behold!” John shouted, pointing a trembling finger. “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”
Jesus began to step down the bank. The Creator stood before the creature and as He began to walk into the water, John’s courage faltered.
The reality of his office overwhelmed him.
He tried to prevent Him, his hands shaking.
“It is I who need to be baptized by You,” he whispered, ” do You come to me?”
But Jesus, with the calm authority of the One who laid the foundations of the earth, replied, “Permit it to be so now, for in this way all righteousness shall be fulfilled.”
John did not understand, but if It was the Will of the Father then who was he to question his command.
He walked with the Master into the deep part of the Jordan. For baptism is not a sprinkling; it is a burial. To be baptized is to be fully submerged, to be overwhelmed by the waves of judgment and death and rely only on God to save you from them.

John placed one hand on the Messiah’s shoulder and the other upon His forehead and began to submerge him beneath the water.
As the water covered Jesus’ face,
John looked up to heaven to pray.
But the prayer escaped from his lips.
He was interrupted by a vision, he began to see the sky ripped open! Like a garment torn or the veil of the temple split into two,  the blue firmament was divided like a flash of lightning, and through the tear, the heavens became visible—dark, deep, as though noon had suddenly become midnight.

Beneath the surface of the water, the vision is entirely different.  
Jesus was no longer in the river
He was sinking into the abyss of an endless ocean, surrounded by complete darkness.
He was alone, a solitary speck of life in the primeval chaos.

Above the surface, a shimmering glow pulsed like a heartbeat.
​Suddenly, a voice narrated the scene
ancient, resonant, it pierced even the water
it was the voice of Moses reciting the Torah:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
​Jesus, looking up from the depths, saw the shape of a Dove hovering over the surface
​Then, the vision accelerated!
In the shimmering light, Jesus saw a fast-forward history of the world He had made.
He saw the sun shooting beams of light penetrating the water.
He saw plants shooting from the ground, a garden of laughter and delight.
But then, shadows fell. Thunderstorms gathered. The fountains of the deep broke open.
He saw a violent flood—a world drowning in judgment.
He saw an Ark, tossing and turning upon the waves of wrath.
And once again, we see Jesus underneath the violent waves, looking up at the bottom of the Ark—the only safety in the storm.
​Moses spoke again, his voice thundering through the water:
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
​An illuminated Arm and Hand reached down from the surface—the Right Hand of God! as it made contact with Jesus’ hand it pulled Him upward and out of the deep abyss.
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His face broke the surface of the water
Blinding light was all that could be seen. The turbulence vanished. The water was suddenly calm.
” And God saw the Light, that it was good.”
John stood there, trembling, as he saw a Dove hovering directly over Jesus as He stood up from the grave of the river.
​A Voice from the heavens, rolling like thunder yet tender as a father, declared:
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased!”
​John was speechless. The vision had seared his soul.
Jesus, led by the Spirit, turned away from the Jordan and began to walk toward the wilderness mountains. He was the Scapegoat bearing the sins of the people, heading into the desolate land.
​But as John watched Him climb, his silence broke. The Prophet could not contain his joy. The fire of Isaiah consumed him, and he began to preach to the people and proclaim the King, his voice rising in joyful triumph:
​“Arise! Shine! For your light has come! for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you!”
​He watched the Messiah ascend the slope, and the words poured out:
“For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you!”
​John’s voice echoed off the canyon walls, escorting the Savior as he climbed the hill:
“The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising! You shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob!”
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“And He will destroy on this mountain the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever! And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces!”
​Tears  of joy streamed down John’s face as he shouted the promise:
“And it will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us! This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation!’”
​He fell to his knees, whispering as Jesus disappeared into the heat and haze of the top of the mountain:
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who proclaims salvation! Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

John was the new Moses, he had led the people through the water of judgment and into the wilderness but only Jesus like  Joshua could defeat the giants of sin that had taken possession of the promised land, Only Jesus could lead the people back to God and fulfill his promise