“This word study comes from the definition used yesterday about preeminence. The feelings we have about being “passed over” quote from yesterday.

When I read those words “passed over” it struck me. This is not the Passover Season. As Christians we have renamed it Easter because of the Resurrection. Some even call it Resurrection Sunday.

Originally holidays were Holy Days. They were designated days of remembrance and celebration. No one seemed to have more of them than the Jewish religion. It could be said with some fair amount of consideration that there would be none of them if it had not been for the night of the first Pass Over.

Exodus 12 English Standard Version

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 

Oddly enough verse 4 sounds exactly like what we do at Thanksgiving, gather together. It was never part of our Easter celebration. We were lucky if it even meant an Easter Egg hunt. That was a pagan leftover from a pagan ritual we never understood but did anyway. My mother and father never celebrated Holy Days.

This is the point of holidays isn’t it? Society has insisted it not be Holy and taken God out of remembrance and celebration. We are months away from the Passover, Easter, and are having the big three at the end of the year. All three have religious ties but only a few remember and celebrate them as Holy. Halloween, all saints day. Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for the new friends that provided life saving food to starving Pilgrims. Christmas, the Mass for Christ to celebrate His birth even though we did not know the date of His birth. Saturnalia was converted to Christmas by Empirical decree.

Romans 14:5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

Every day is a gift to remember and celebrate as a gift from God.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

2 Samuel 1:26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

Ecclesiastes 1:16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
2 Corinthians 9:14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

2 Corinthians 12:7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Philippians 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

This word study comes from the definition used yesterday about preeminence. The feelings we have about being passed over just because of the sound of the word surpassing is wrong. Jesus is God and with God in the beginning. He was always first. So why did Jesus come into the story so late in the reading.

Hebrews 1 English Standard Version

The Supremacy of God’s Son

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The simple answer is that man stopped listening to the prophets, killed the prophets, and created prophets for false gods.

What I hear you will not find in the bible, but it rings true enough for me.

“Since you would not believe my messengers, I will come down there and speak to you myself.”

That is my quote by faith. You may use it but all glory must go to God. I am but a man.