Sunday School Lesson for Dec. 26, 2010: God Is with Us (Isaiah 43:1-7, 10-12)

Psalm 40:7

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll.



Isaiah 29:18

In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.



Hebrews 10:7

Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”





I attended a service at a local Messianic Church some years ago and had the wonderful opportunity to experience a very Jewish flavoring of the presentation of the Gospel. One part of the service included a reading from the Torah, the Old Testament. This involved the unrolling of an actual scroll to the selected place in Scripture from which the minister was to read. The scroll is read through it’s entirety from the beginning of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through to the end of that year. At year’s end, the scroll is rewound (as it were) and the process is started all over again.

It’s interesting that, in our culture, we celebrate the birth of Christ very near the end of our year. It’s as if God, Himself, at the time of Jesus’ birth, ‘rolled up the scroll’ on human history and started over. Closed the Book and started anew. From Heaven, God pressed ‘RESET’. Isn’t that good news? And isn’t it fitting that in the Gentile cultures, we celebrate the two events so closely together? There was no hope for you or I until Christ came. Just saying. I know this sounds like a New Years message; my apologies for being a week late. No, this is not the New Years lesson, this is the New Hope message, the New Life message (Hallelujah). Blessings to you and yours as we celebrate the new life we’ve been given in Jesus, our Lord and Savior.



Blessings,



.wb



Revelation 5:9

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.