The Old Testament is full of the very graphic and, for the most part, tragic history of God’s people.
Something that will help you tremendously when you study the Old Testament is to understand that the physical things that you are reading are most often representations of spiritual realities.
For example, in the great story of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt, there is far more than meets the eye. The physical slavery of God’s people was a picture of the spiritual reality of all humanities slavery to sin. Moses, God’s man to lead the physical deliverance of His people from Egypt is the spiritual picture of Jesus, God’s man to lead the spiritual deliverance of His people from sin.
All of the Old Testament is full of such pictures. The Old Testament is, truly, a picture of Jesus.
This week we’re going to look at Samuel, another representation of the Christ to come, and Agag, the king of the Amalekites, who represented the ruthless and relentless nature of sin.
What happens when Christ and sin meet face to face? Sin loses. Sin is defeated. But it’s not defeated without cost and it’s not defeated without effort. It’s not defeated without paying a price.
Even though Jesus won the battle against sin, sin remains until He comes again. The most difficult endeavor of any Christian is the never-ending battle against the sin that remains until we pass from this life or until Jesus comes again. Peter warned the early church about this battle with these words:
1 Peter 2:11 – Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
Peter was trying to explain that the spiritual reality of Jesus saving your soul does not mean that you won’t have to battle against sin.
In this week’s lesson, we’ll look at how to play both offense and defense against sin.
Much love to you all, my wonderful family –
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
