In the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus teaches us that prayer is not just a one-off matter. Although he encourages us that our heavenly Father will hear our prayer, he also leaves no doubt that we may need to pray repeatedly and persistently until we receive our answer. If you have been praying for someone or something and are still waiting for God to answer, this is for you. Do not lose heart, do not be discouraged! Persist just as the widow persisted!
One of the greatest discoveries a believer can make is the wonderful truth that God is our Father and we are his children. But we shouldn’t stop here. Understanding our identity as God’s children is no end in itself. It is the starting point of our relationship with the Father. And as every relationship works in two ways, this is the case also in our relationship with God. But what do we bring to that Father-child relationship? What does God, our Father, expect from us?
In the night that God delivered Israel out of Egypt, God provided an unusual and unprecedented means of protection from certain death: the blood of a 1 year old lamb had to be applied around the door frame. This lamb that the Israelites slaughtered and ate was an Image of the true Lamb of God that was to come. Read more on the significance of Passover and how Jesus became our very own Passover.
Passover, or Pesach, is the biblical feast that remembers God's mighty intervention when He delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt some 3500 years ago. Passover also foreshadows our personal deliverance from bondage to sin and irrevocable separation from our old task master. Read more about the striking parallels of the Passover story and God's dealing with us personally.
Each year on Yom Kippur, the High Priest chose two goats, one to symbolically carry the sins of the people into the wilderness, the other to be sacrificed on the altar to pacify God’s wrath over sin. He then entered the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and interceded before the Ark of the Covenant for his people for God to have mercy. About 1200 years after the Israelites celebrated the first Yom Kippur in the wilderness, Yeshua, who was without sin, became the true scapegoat, carrying our sin and putting it to death when He gave His life on the cross.
