The Stake or The Cross? Part II
Thank you for calling SOS. Today, we are continuing our series on the
"Torture Stake". "Was Jesus executed on an upright pole
or was Jesus really crucified on a cross"? If you missed the first
message of this series, you can obtain transcripts from our website, which
is: members.tripod.com/sosoutreach;
Last week we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the WT's book, Reasoning
from the Scriptures clearly excluded crucial information from the Imperial
Bible Dictionary's account on the means by which Jesus was executed. Not
only did the Imperial Bible Dictionary obviously point to the cross; we
can see the evidence from the Greek Scriptures also. Thomas would not believe
in John Chap. 20:24,25 until he saw the print of the nails (in the plural,
more than one nail) in Jesus hands. Matthew at Chap. 27:37 also revealed
to us that Jesus' hands could not have been nailed straight
up above his head because a sign was posted above his head not his
hands.
The eye witness accounts by both John and Matthew is compelling evidence
that Jesus was in fact crucified on the cross. But did you know that Jehovah
God knew, in advance, and revealed to us in the OT, how Jesus, The Lamb
of God, would be crucified?? That's right; hundreds of years before Jesus
was even born, Yahweh, had painted us a brilliant picture about the "ultimate
sacrifice".
Exodus Chap 12 vs. 22: and I'm reading from the NWT now:
"And you must take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood
in the basin and strike upon the upper part of the doorway and upon the
two doorposts some of the blood that is in the basin; and none of you should
go out of the entrance of his house until morning".
When Egypt's judgement was imminent, God commanded the sons of Israel
to mark the doors of their dwellings with the blood of the Passover lamb.
Those marks painted on the doors set apart the houses of those who believed
and obeyed God from the houses of those who did not.
The bason mentioned in Ex. 12:22 was not a container in the sense in
which we use the word basin today. The word is the Egyptian sap, meaning
the threshold or ditch which was dug just in front of the doorways of the
houses to avoid flooding. The people placed a container in the ditch to
prevent seepage. The Israelites killed their Passover lambs right by the
doors, where they were about to sprinkle the blood, and the blood from
the slaughter automatically ran into the depression (or the bason) at the
threshold. When they painted the blood on with the hyssop "brush",
they first touched the lintel (or the top horizontal part of the
doorframe), then each side post (or the vertical sides). In doing
this, they went through the motions of making the sign of a bloody cross,
the prophecy of another Passover sacrifice to come centuries later. Thus,
the door was "sealed" on all four sides with the blood of the
lamb, because the blood was already on the bottom. A famous author
sees this as a picture of the suffering Messiah Himself: and I quote:
"Blood above where the thorns pierced His brow, blood at the
sides, from His nail pierced hands; blood below, from His nail pierced
feet".
We see further symbolism in the words of Jesus, when He said in John
Chap. 10 vs. 9 and I quote.
"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,
and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
The Israelites went in through the blood-sealed door on the first Passover
night and found safety. Protected and redeemed by the sacrificial blood,
they went out the next morning and began their journey toward the good
pasture, the land of promise. We who are redeemed by the true Passover
Lamb find safety in Him from God's judgement, and, because of Him, as we
are told in Hebrews Chap 11 vs. 10; we look forward to a future, eternal
haven in the very presence of the Almighty, in the city whose "builder
and maker is God.
***Thank you again for joining us today. And please join us again next
week for more ongoing studies in the scriptures.***
By the way, did you know that Yahweh revealed yet another picture of
Christ's death in Ezekiel Chap 9:4-6?? That right, once again, Jehovah
foretold, hundreds of years before Jesus' birth, how He was to be crucified.
Stay tuned and find out!
If you have any comments or thoughts on today's message, please feel
free to leave them after the sound of the tone.