The  Messiah’s Secret – Jesus  our  Shield and Refuge

Genesis 15:  1-12. 17, 18. Luke 13: 31-35.

Visual Aid

The lollipop lady holding up their badge of authority step out in faith, believing that the drivers will stop their cars in both directions. She stands between the cars and the children, Shielding them from the dangers of crossing the road. 

Jesus is our shield he protects us and makes a way for us to follow. We have his badge of authority, 'his name'. When we pray we ask in the name of Jesus.

In Genesis 15 the word came to Abram from God in a vision. He heard the words, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

God was Abram’s shield when he had risked his life to rescue Lot. In the previous chapter we read when Abram heard that Lot had been taken captive during the regional war that took place near the Dead Sea:

(Araphel, Arioch, Kedorlamer and the king Tidal who had waged war against five kings: Bera king of Sodom, Birsha King of Gomorrah, and kings Shinab Shember, and Zoar king of Bela and defeated them.

The four kings took Lot and his possession as he was living in Sodom. One of Lot’s servants escaped and went and told Abram that Lot had been captured.

Abram out of love for his nephew took a small army and defeated four kings and rescued Lot, his relatives and his possessions.

On his return, Melchizedek high priest of God greeted Abram in the King’s Valley with a peace offering of bread and wine, praising God for shielding him and winning a great victory.

The writer of Hebrew states that Melchizedek was the high priest of God, who had no father or mother, no genealogy without beginning of days or end of life and he resembled the Son of God. Hebrews 7: 1,3.                                                                                                

Jewish tradition suggests that Adam was the first high priest of God, having no father or mother in the flesh, therefore no genealogy, God himself his creator, before he fell into sin. “Hebrew for Christians” John J Parsons

Melchizedek resembled the Son of God in that he offered bread and wine as a peace offering, pointing to the greater peace offering of  Jesus the Son and high priest of God offered the bread and wine, his life, his body and blood for the forgiveness of sin, that we receive through faith, as a peace offering between God and man. At the communion the bread and the wine are tokens of his body and blood we eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus laying down  his life for us.  Hebrews 6: 20. “He has become a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”  
Jesus the second Adam  Romans 5: 12-21. 1 Corinthians 15: 22, 45-49.                                                                                       

Abram was not afraid of the four kings, just as Jesus was not afraid of Herod, Jesus was not going to take heed of the Pharisees words to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” Jesus was not afraid of Herod.

We read Jesus in his reply likened Herod to a fox, a fox is sly and cunning, he gave them a message for Herod, “Go and tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow and on the third day I will reach my goal.’” The Pharisees and Herodians came to Jesus and asked should they pay their taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus asked to look at the coin and he advised them to pay the taxes to the one whose head was on the coin. Mark 12:13. A cunning strategy they wanted to be able to accuse Jesus of rebellion against the Romans.

Jesus continued to heal people of their mental and physical ailments before he went to Jerusalem.  There he would complete his task, fulfilling his goal which was to rescue the whole of humanity and creation from the power of the devil.

 Hebrews 2: 14. “Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death that is the devil.”

It is by faith believing in the heart and accepting what Jesus has done for us on the cross that we enter into the family of God.

Through our faith in Jesus, we  are rewarded like Abraham with a covenant an agreement:  Abraham would have an heir and would be a father of a great nation.

Whereas, the new covenant that Jesus established is better, we are joint heirs with Christ, there is no genealogy, no descendants, we are all in Christ. 

Jesus born into humanity his mother Mary giving him his flesh and genealogy through King David, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. Matthew 1: 1-17 
God was Jesus' Father, Luke 3: 23-38  traced Jesus' genealogy back through adoption by Joseph going back to Adam who had no father or mother. Jesus in his Divinity is part of the Trinity he looked to his heavenly home in his prayer John 17: 14, 16 where he was before the foundation of the world. We are in Christ before the foundation of the earth. Ephesians 1: 4 The Jewish nation are from the foundation of the earth. Hebrews 9: 26.                              

When the lollipop person steps off the pavement into the busy road and holding their badge of authority the cars will stop.  They step out in faith.

Someone locally who recently stepped out in faith Kath she started a group called ‘Embrace’ her story was in the December Crux. She wrote, “For about three years, I had been thinking about setting up some sort of ministry to support people with addiction problems. I approached Revd D Brae and he said, ‘Just go and do it!’ And she says that now ‘Embrace’ is thriving in Bacup.”    

The lollipop person opens up a pathway so that the children and adults pass over the road.  Kath found out God opened up a way when she stepped out in faith. We need not fear, he is our shield and our refuge is in him.  

Kath is sharing the Bible with them to find Jesus. And for those who go to ‘Embrace’, they are coming to know Jesus in a personal way.  

The  lollipop is a badge of authority is like us praying in Jesus’ name, his name is our badge of authority, we are shielded and protected by his name because we are one with him.                                                                                                                                              

We can move mountains of problems through faith in his name and here in Mark’s 11:22-24 he says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have already received.

Jesus is in the fabric of our being in Spirit and in truth and while we live on earth we are walking in his victory over all principalities and powers and because we are in Christ, we are in a safe place.

Added afterwards:

Paul wrote Ephesians 6: 16 by daily take hold of the shield of faith, we are able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.     

We have an example when Jesus visited his home town, In Nazareth Jesus upset the people in the synagogue by what he said, he pointed to their unbelief, He didn’t do many miracles there because of their unbelief. So in their fiery words they threatened to throw him over the cliff, but he walked straight through the crowd, he was shielded by God he had taken refuge in God. Luke 4: 24-28.

It’s like the astronauts they are totally shielded by the heat shield on their space craft when they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. So when we find our faith being challenged we have the assurance of the Lord shielding us and our refuge is in Christ.