“Therefore the Lord (Adonai אֲדֹנָי The Father) himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Imma-nu-el (‘God is with us’26).” Isaiah 7:14
I can’t help it, every time I read that passage I get excited! Every time I see the name in the Hebrew Bible for Abba I get excited, but when I see that He is the one who personally gave the God who Created us, The Word of God, to be born of a Virgin of about 13-14 years old, who had never known a man in her entire life—wow—I get excited!
When I first started studying this concept of The Father in the Old Testament, this was one of the first places I opened my Bible to test it. There it was. Proof positive that the system works, absolute proof of what believers in Jesus have been holding onto as Truth for 2000 years: Daddy gives us the best gift of all: Jesus, His Son.
One of the names for Jesus in the Old Testament is El. In layman’s terms you can simply say that the name of the God אֱלֹהִים who created us in Genesis 1 is, Elōhim. The shortened form of the same name often appears in the Bible as, El. This verse literally says that Elōhim is given by GOD the Father to be born in the flesh!
Okay, maybe I should have put this in the last chapter, but I really thought it would be a great starting point for this one. If GOD the Father thought it so important to give us the God of Israel, His Son, in the form of man, born as a little baby, then what other gifts do you think He might have to give us? What might we be missing out on by failing to get to know Abba better? How much stronger would Christian men be for the Kingdom?
A few moments ago, you didn’t know this passage of the Bible as well as you do right now. What else are you missing out on? There is a whole new world of wonder out there that your Daddy in Heaven is chomping at the bit to share with you! These are the secrets of the Kingdom that He wants us to know! (Matthew 13:11) Want some Scripture to prove it?
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
“Jesus said: ‘And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.’” John 16:23
“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3Give us day by day our daily bread.” Luke 11:1-3
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Mathew 7:11, Luke 11:13
If you are in Jesus you are in the Father[1] If you are in Jesus you have life.[2] Since Jesus has been raised from the dead as a man, and you are in the Father through Him, you get to live forever through Him. The only way that mankind could ever become extinct is if God died, and that is never going to happen.
The whole of creation was intended as a gift to humanity. It was Adam’s decision to eat of the forbidden fruit that allowed Satan to take control of it. God’s plan from the start was to give us all of creation as a gift. Through the sacrifice of His Son, however, we don’t only have the promise of receiving that one gift alone, but also of reigning with His Son forever. We get to be part of the Kingdom as rulers. We get to be part of the Kingdom as priests. We get new bodies, spiritual bodies of God’s own making.
The writer of Hebrews said it like this in trying to explain why we should not hold back from such a great lover of our souls:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22 (ESV)
In this life these and many other similar promises are ours. Why do we spend so much time living in doubt that our Heavenly Father has only our best in His heart? I love what my dear friend Pastor Mike O’Leary loves to say about reading the Bible, “Just keep reading until you see some good news!”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” Proverbs 3:5-8 (ESV)
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)
“And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.” Mathew 21:21 (ESV)
“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Mark 11:23 (KJV)
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 15:16
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13
“Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” Ephesians 6:8
“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” John 16:23
I can tell you from personal experience that I have spent far too much of my life living in condemnation of one sort or another. As a man who is responsible for providing for a family, being without a job can be the most agonizing experience. It is humiliating beyond belief to seek work that will pay the bills, often finding nothing. As a man it is very hurtful to do a job and do it to the best of your ability, only to be told you’re not good enough and be let go. As a man it is very hard to stand up for what you believe when so many other voices are right there shouting back at you, shouting and pushing you back into submission to some will that is not of God.
In the Western world there has been a sinister undermining of the self-confidence of men. Yet it isn’t so much an attack on men as it is on GOD the Father, and His Son in whose image we are made. Both Jesus and his Father can understand what we’ve gone though, because Satan rejected them both. Abba knows what it feels like to be betrayed. That’s why Daddy gave us hope.
“That whosoever believeth in him [Word/The Son] should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God [The Father] so loved the world, that he [The Father] gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him [The Son] should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God [The Father] sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him [The Son] might be saved.” John 3:15-17
If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is.
[1] 1 John 2:23 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
38 John 14:15 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (also see: John 17:21)
[2]
