Did you know Jesus is in Gensis chapter 1? Did you know the Holy Spirit is there?

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said..."
-Genesis 1:1-3

Have you ever really looked at this verse and realized that EVERYONE is present! Look again.

"the Spirit of God was hovering..." That's the Holy Spirit!
"Then God said..." That's Jesus Christ! He is the Word made flesh! (John 1:1-10)

This blows my mind and gets me excited about the Bible! I love the Old Testament. Digging to find Old Testament types and shadows of Christ excites me! Guess what? The WHOLE BIBLE is God's redemption plan for man. You CAN find Christ in the Old Testament. Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament tells us all scripture is written for our instruction. So today I'll share a tidbit of God's goodness from the Old Testament relating to gut level Christianity.

God loves us. He wants to be with us. In Exodus, God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle so He could dwell with His people! The place God chose to come and meet with Israel is called the mercy seat. It's not called the "seat of wrath". Thank God! He meets us and speaks to us from the mercy seat. God is not trying to distance Himself from us. He never has. We've always been the ones pushing Him away. His love and desire for us is gut-wrenching!

When Joseph had been in Egypt for many years, sold there by his older brothers. the first sight of his younger brother Benjamin caused gut-wrenching love to well up in him. "Joseph hurried out for his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he sought a place to weep; and he entered his chamber and wept there." (Genesis 43:30) The strength of his response shows the depth of his feelings towards Benjamin. This was his little brother, the only full brother he had among the eleven who stood before him. A modern way to say, "his bowels did yearn" is this: Joseph experienced gut-wrenching love when he saw his long-lost brother. That's a glimpse of the depth of the love God has for us.

Another example of gut-wrenching love is found in 1 Kings when two women brought their dispute before Solomon. It boiled down to this. Each woman had borne a son. One baby died, and both women claimed to be the mother of the living baby. Solomon's answer: cut the living child in two and give half to each woman. The true mother of the child cried out, "Give him to the other woman. Please, don't kill him!" 1 Kings 3:26 says "her bowels yearned upon her son." To consider the death of her son stirred gut-wrenching love in this woman. She would rather see him alive and in the care of another woman than to witness his death. She was willing to give up her motherly rights, to watch him grow from a distance and possibly never be a part of his life rather than see him cut in two. Solomon wisely gave the living child to this woman. The yearning of her mother's love was evidence of the truth.

The same Hebrew word translated "bowels" in these two examples is translated "compassion" in other scriptures, especially in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Compassion is God's gut-wrenching love for us. His justice requires judgment of sin, yet His choice is not to pour it out on us and see us destroyed. To consider our eternal destruction moved Him to sacrifice His own Son in our place. He poured out His wrath for sin on His perfect and innocent Son.

And there was no coercion on God's part. Jesus, who is fully man and fully God, chose to take our judgment. He said, "I lay down My life...No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down of my own initiative." (John 10:17-18) He chose to take the outpouring of God’s wrath on Himself to save us. Gut-wrenching love moved Him to ultimate sacrifice.

Glory to God!
Thank you, Lord.