A SABBATH DAY'S REST IN THE TOMB by Bobbie Ann Cole

 

Yesterday, we remembered Jesus’ death on the cross as the Passover came in.

Passover celebrates God instructing Moses to tell the Children of Israel to slaughter a lamb and daub its blood on their doorposts, so that the Angel of Death would pass over their houses and they would be spared the 10^th Plague – Death of the Firstborn.

This final, devastating plague brought the Egyptians to their knees and made Pharaoh free the Children of Israel from slavery, so that they could begin their journey to God’s Promised Land.

As Jesus was dying on the cross, long lines of men holding their lamb or goat ready for sacrifice waited and priests formed conveyer belts, passing cups of spilled blood from each slaughtered animal through the file to the high priest, who sprinkled the blood on the altar.

At 3 pm, as Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ and expired, the sacrificial ritual was finished.

Jesus is our saving Passover Lamb. He is also our sacrificial lamb—our atonement offering and our thanks offering. He leads us through the torn curtain of the Holy of Holies directly to God. As our new and permanent High Priest he leads us from slavery to sin to the Promised Land of eternal life.

And today, the sabbath day of rest, he lies in his tomb, resting from all his work, as did his Creator Father on the 7^th day.

He lies, wrapped in a hugely extravagant amount of myrrh and aloes, and in strips of linen, in  the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, just as Isaiah foretold.

John is at pains to tell us that this tomb was, “a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” (John 19:41) So is Matthew (27:60). Luke, too: “a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.” (23:50).

Why does this matter?

Because we have come full circle from the virgin birth to the virgin tomb. This tomb is an end to Jesus’ human life but also a kind of womb from which he will be reborn through the hymen that seals its entrance. We can rejoice in the anticipation that Jesus will emerge from it victorious over death, tomorrow.

Hallelujah!

 

 

I am currently posting a 3-day mini-series of videos: THE DEEPER MEANING OF WHAT JESUS DID – on the ACW Group Facebook page.

Also available for FREE is WHERE JESUS WALKED, A Virtual Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in Pictures. This booklet with anecdotes from my life in Israel is available at: http://prayerfulpilgrims.com/.

Bobbie Ann Cole is ACW’s Competition Manager. She is a Christian writer, speaker and writing teacher, the author of two Amazon #1 bestselling memoirs and a novel that was shortlisted for the Eyelands Book Award 2019.