DAY 11: God Meets A Mate, Satan Meets His Match

Christ's beating

A figure hangs on a cross between heaven and earth. Two meetings are about to take place-one good and pleasant, one ugly and violent. A Man is about to meet His bride and a serpent is about to meet a curve ball to the teeth:

For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church (Ephes. 5:31, 32).

Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! For Thou hast smitten all my enemies on the cheek; Thou hast shattered the teeth of the wicked (Psalm 3:7).

Such beauty, such ugliness...union, disunion...joining, breaking....Actually, many other meetings could be mentioned as taking place through the Cross: Mercy met judgment; Righteousness met sin; Light met darkness; Humility met pride; Love met hate; Life met death; A cursed One on a tree met the curse that originated from a tree; The sting of death met the antidote of resurrection. All the good guys won!

Only God could plan such an event-let alone have it turn out perfectly. Only He could marry such extremes in one occurrence. Who but He could shed blood to create life, use pain to bring healing, allow injustice to satisfy justice and accept rejection to restore acceptance? Who could use such an evil act to accomplish so much good? Who could transform an act of amazing love into such violence and vice versa? Only God. So many paradoxes. So much irony.

Don't you find it fascinating that the serpent who accomplished his greatest victory from a tree (of the knowledge of good and evil) suffered his greatest defeat from a tree (the Cross of Calvary)?
Don't you find it ironic that the first Adam succumbed to temptation in a garden (Eden) and the last Adam overcame His greatest temptation in a garden (Gethsemane)?

Can God ever write a script!

The Hebrew word for intercession, paga, means "to meet."  Although the word intercession has come to mean prayer in our minds, its Hebrew word does not necessarily mean prayer at all. It has many shades of meaning, all of which can be done through prayer.

Intercession creates a meeting. Intercessors meet with God; they also meet the powers of darkness. "Prayer meetings" are aptly named!

Shalom,

Rev. Obadiah Swen

Pastor, Bethel World Outreach Church - Virginia