REFLECTIONS

The Opera–The Messengers

The Opera—The Messengers

After discovering Adam and Eve had disobediently eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God imposed his punishment.

To the serpent, He said: “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman, “… with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:13-16)

To Adam he said, … “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3: 17, 19) Then God banished them from the garden.

But He knew mankind needed a Savior. He also knew their human nature would try to gain salvation on their own merits and be like God. So, to capture their attention, the Savior must appear in human likeness. So, God presented the Messiah in human form in The Opera.

He introduced Abraham and Sarah onto The Opera stage along with their unlikely son, Isaac, and their grandson Jacob. He told their stories and their descendants’ while choosing messengers to subtly plant clues of his plan to redeem the sin-filled world.

Moses unveiled the Ten Commandments to reveal the nature of sin. Then he revealed the sacrificial laws requiring lifeblood of a cherished possession, often evidenced by a perfect lamb.

Isaiah the prophet wrote, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;” (Isaiah 11:1) to link the Messiah’s humanity through the ancestry to Israel’s King David:And he further disclosed the Messiah’s deity: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Micah the prophet added the Messiah’ birthplace to the scene: But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, (Micah 5:2)

In Nazareth, a betrothed couple were yet to learn of prominent roles they were to play. God chose another messenger for that job.

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

You are the light of the world,

Richard +www.reflectingthesavior.org

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