Bible Study Notes For Home Bible Study Jan.14

Jan.14

What was Jesus Doing Before Bethlehem?

“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”       Revelation 1:7-8 NKJV

Last week, we talked about the preexistence of Jesus. The fact that He has always been in glory with the Father. This week I want to talk about what He was doing before Bethlehem. Was he busy or was He just sitting around waiting on Bethlehem?

1. He was loving and being loved by the Father. 
2. “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

.      John 17:23-24 NKJV

• He was creating the universe.
•  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

.                 John 1:1-3 NKJV

•  “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” Everything belongs to Him!

Colossians 1:16 NKJV

•  “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ———

And: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.”

                  Hebrews 1:2, 10 NKJV

What does creation include?    —– electrons to galaxies.  Angels to Adam

• He was controlling and maintaining His creation.
• “Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”   Hebrews 1:3 NKJV
• “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”   Colossians 1:17 

Did Jesus have a place or ministry in the Old Testament world?

1. What in the world is a Theophany/ Christophany?

A Theophany/ Christophany is a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Christ. 

Most theologians believe that whenever God appeared to men in the Old Testament, it was actually a Christophany or a pre -Bethlehem appearance of Jesus.

• A passage that seems to confirm the fact that sometimes an O.T. Angel was actually a pre=incarnate Jesus.

“And he blessed Joseph, and said: “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has fed me all my life long to this day, The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; Let my name be named upon them, And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.””

Genesis 48:15-16 NKJV

• Turn to Gen.32:22-32   I believe this is the time that Jacob was referring to  when he spoke of,  The Angel who has redeemed me.

• What are some other instances of God being seen by people in the O.T. ?
•  start with this one: 

 “And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

Joshua 5:13-15 NKJV

Also seen by: 

•  Hagar in  Gen.16:7-14,  
• Abraham in Gen.18:1 & 22:11-13,          
•  Jacob in Gen.28:13, 32:24-32 & 48:16. 
• Moses almost anywhere in Exodus
• Joshua
• Gideon in Judges 6:11-24
• Samson’s parents in Judges 13
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3:25
• Don’t forget that Nebuchadnezzar saw the Fourth Man walking in the fire.
• Daniel in Daniel 6:22 & 7:9-14
• But first of all was Adam & Eve in Genesis.  I believe it was Jesus who walked with them in the cool of the evening, and it was Jesus who came looking for them after they had sinned.
• In truth, I think that we can find the Pre-incarnate Jesus in every book of the Old Testament.