Last week our Thursday night Bible study finished the Gospel of Luke. These verses caught my eye:
Luke 24:45-46 (NASB95)Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day…
These words were spoken after the resurrection and just before Christ ascended to heaven. Note that our risen Lord opened the disciples' minds to understand the scriptures. Their minds were still veiled, but as Paul said: “whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” (2 Cor 3:
Here’s where it is written:
Hosea 6:1-3 (NASB95)1 “Come, let us return to the LORD.For He has torn, but He will heal us;He has wounded, but He will bandage us.2 “He will revive us after two days;He will raise us up on the third day,That we may live before Him.
This is a Gospel message from the Old Testament!
David Guzik says in his commentary on Hosea:
Hosea prayed this full of confidence in love and power to restore. In the prayer, there is a shadowy prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection on the third day. The context supports this wonderfully; on the cross Jesus was torn and stricken for our sake, yet He was also gloriously raised up on the third day.
As Isaiah said in his prophecy of the suffering messiah:
Isaiah 53:4 (NASB95)Surely our griefs He Himself bore,And our sorrows He carried;Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But why did Hosea say, “He will raise US up on the third day”?
Paul connects the dots here:
Ephesians 2:4-6 (NASB95)But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made US alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and RAISED US UP with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...
So, this word of encouragement follows in Hosea 6:3:
“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.His going forth is as certain as the dawn;And He will come to us like the rain,Like the spring rain watering the earth.”
His going forth from the tomb, and going into all the world through us, is as certain as the dawn was certain that first Easter morning! And as the water flowed from His earthly body to signify His death, even so the living water of the Holy Spirit flows from the body of Christ through each of us today, bringing salvation and eternal life to all who receive it!
Finally, Jesus gave us this commission:
Luke 24:47 (NASB95) ... that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Let’s proclaim the gospel in His name - like the spring rain watering the whole earth - to all the nations, starting today, here and now!
