Acts 3:19-22(NKJV) 19Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.
Yesterday we began to look at the parallel between Moses and Jesus. In these verses Peter is quoting the prophet Isaiah and pointing to Jesus as this new Prophet. As we have studied them we can see that both Moses and Jesus found a people in bondage. Where Moses was dealing with a physical bondage and a physical nation, Jesus was dealing with a spiritual and a spiritual nation.
Moses judged the gods of Egypt defeating them in a kind of combat. He left the kingdom of Egypt utterly beaten and finally the Pharaoh let the children of Israel leave captivity.
Jesus spent 3 years attacking the kingdom of Satan. He healed the sick, raised the dead, set captives free and confounded the religious voices who sought to destroy him. When Jesus was done with the kingdom of darkness there was no question that he was the clear victor over the “god of this world.”
In both cases the enemy had been defeated, but the threat of the enemy still remained. As we have studied Moses we learned that God led the children of Israel into what seemed like a trap for them. In truth God was going to bring final defeat on the Egyptians. He was going to destroy their army.
The children of Israel started along the normal route to Canaan, then God led them south to the banks of the Red Sea. This make it look to Pharaoh like Israel was lost. He decided to pursue them thinking they no longer had the help of their God. He was wrong. He watched his army march into the midst of a divided Red Sea and he saw the waters crash down on them.
In that one stroke Pharaoh became a defeated foe. Moses had promised the children of Israel that they would never see those Egyptians again. That is exactly what happened. All the power that Egypt had to bring them back into bondage was gone.
God did the exact same thing through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. After 3 years of victory over the powers of darkness the devil found that Jesus had been delivered into his hands. A traitor had managed to hand him over to the Jewish authorities under false accusations.
Right! Jesus had walked through crowds ready to stone him. He had baffled the Pharisees with his wisdom. He had performed miracles that caused the people to love him. The week before he had entered the city to a triumphal celebration. He had won the war over the devil, and now he is delivered into the enemy’s hand by a traitor? I smell something here don’t you? Look at this scripture.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8(NKJV) 7But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God was doing it again. Jesus was not trapped by the devil, the devil was trapped by God. What happened next was a nightmare to Satan. He caused the crucifixion of Jesus, but in the process Jesus took away all the power he had over mankind. He took Jesus to the depths of hell and right there in the middle of Satan’s own domain Jesus was raised up by the spirit of God.
The bible says that Jesus took the keys to death hell and the grave. It says that he cast off the powers and principalities that tried to hold him down. Finally it says that he made an open show of the Devil. He lead captivity captive and potentially set every human being free. Look at these verses.
Hebrews 2:14-15(NKJV) 14Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Jesus did to the devil exactly what Moses had done to Pharaoh. By the time Moses was done with Pharaoh he had no power to bring Israel back into captivity. By the time Jesus was done with Satan the power of sin and death, the only power that held man captive, had been destroyed. Anyone who would choose to could be free forever from the dominion of darkness.
As we study this, we see that Israel still choose to look back to Egypt. Although there was no power of the Egyptians that could make them go back to bondage, they still complained to Moses and wanted to go back.
Because of the victory Jesus won over the devil, every man woman and child is free to choose life in Christ. Many still do not. What is even worse is that we who have received this life often behave like the Israelites. Jesus said he came to give us abundant life, yet we often choose darkness. Our foe is defeated and yet we still give in to the flesh, the world and the devil.
As we go on this week I want to focus on a few of the reasons why. Our foe is defeated, but not inactive. We still have to resist him. For today, however, just meditate on the great victory won by these two giants of the faith. Your enemy, the devil is defeated and you get to enjoy the victory.
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