JohnDB
Member
I taught my Sunday School class yesterday. Kinda unusual for me to do so. We have a regular leader and he does a wonderful Job at filling in the seats, checking on everyone, and usually providing an interesting lesson (albeit from a plan)
Yesterday he wasn't going to be ready. He just got back into the country with his newly adopted son from Latvia and then his mother passed away in the middle of all this quarantine stuff. So he asked me if I would do it. I agreed.
And I had to think for a bit about what I would talk about. I don't have the series he has been teaching out of...and we were going to have a marriage seminar...but all cancelled.
My wife suggested something "Easter" related.
And I had to agree...willingly.
Because with Easter comes sunrise services...
in my youth this was not a pleasant experience. Number one I was a teenager who would rather do night time services in the video game parlor than anything else.
Number two, I have always had a rather low blood pressure...meaning that I am always cold. And in Boise Idaho it is usually too cold in the spring to have Easter egg hunts because the snow would likely either freeze them or cover them up. Either way it is never a good idea to hold one outdoors.
And I recall one such episode in my youth where the Youth Group was having a "Lock in" type deal at our church...where we would be awake and go to Table Rock just outside of Boise for a Sunrise Service for Easter Morning. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag and stubbornly refused to go. I was cold and going outside in even colder weather was not my idea of a good time. Not to mention that my experience waiting for a bus before sunrise was that it gets just a degree or two colder just before sunrise to begin with...You might not notice it if you were already numb from the cold to begin with....just saying. But that particular service...always felt like I missed something from not going to it.
And that temperature drop reminded me of something...
In Genesis 3:8
Then the Man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
This is trying to explain in Hebrew poetry that this took place at sunrise...
Basically they were hiding and afraid at Sunrise because they knew that they had done wrong.
In Genesis 19:15 Lot gets rescued by the Angels and the city was destroyed....at sunrise.
Genesis 32:24 Jacob is scared of meeting Esau and is alone when he wrestles with God and gets his new name Israel...at sunrise
Mannah appears when?
Joshua 6:15 The walls of Jericho fell...at sunrise
Judges 6:36 Gideon got his answers on the fleece at sunrise.
Isaiah 37:36 The seige of Jerusalem by Senaccherib is over and people can eat. Lots of dead enemies...at Sunrise
(This story is also told in 2Kings and Chronicles)
Daniel 6:19 Daniel is lifted out of the Lion's den at Sunrise by the King after having a sleepless night. (didn't work out as well for those who pointed their fingers at Daniel.)
Jonah 4:7 God sent a worm at Sunrise to eat the vine so it would wither...this is after Jonah had been spit back up by the fish and had done his preaching tour...he was sitting outside the city waiting for it's destruction and was angry and miserable.
Mark 6:47 The fourth Watch is a time period roughly between 3-6am. Pretty much Sunrise is when Jesus would start his walk on the water.
Easter morning...the rooster crows at sunrise for Peter the day before...
Everyone is hiding and scared now that the Sabbath is over...Lazarus doesn't want to die again, Jesus is dead...Mary comes to the grave.
Then...after it is known that Jesus is risen and running about...Peter is fishing all night again. But at Sunrise Jesus calls to him and tells him to fish on the other side of the boat. And when they get to shore Jesus already has some fish cooking and bread already freshly made. Peter, after his denial, is scared about his status with Jesus.
Today we are all having to be scared and hiding inside our homes. Scared we might catch this virus or scared that we will be fine but in turn infect someone we love dearly.
But I am ready, willing, and waiting for Sunrise. I am not the same lad as I was in my youth...
How about YOU?
Yesterday he wasn't going to be ready. He just got back into the country with his newly adopted son from Latvia and then his mother passed away in the middle of all this quarantine stuff. So he asked me if I would do it. I agreed.
And I had to think for a bit about what I would talk about. I don't have the series he has been teaching out of...and we were going to have a marriage seminar...but all cancelled.
My wife suggested something "Easter" related.
And I had to agree...willingly.
Because with Easter comes sunrise services...
in my youth this was not a pleasant experience. Number one I was a teenager who would rather do night time services in the video game parlor than anything else.
Number two, I have always had a rather low blood pressure...meaning that I am always cold. And in Boise Idaho it is usually too cold in the spring to have Easter egg hunts because the snow would likely either freeze them or cover them up. Either way it is never a good idea to hold one outdoors.
And I recall one such episode in my youth where the Youth Group was having a "Lock in" type deal at our church...where we would be awake and go to Table Rock just outside of Boise for a Sunrise Service for Easter Morning. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag and stubbornly refused to go. I was cold and going outside in even colder weather was not my idea of a good time. Not to mention that my experience waiting for a bus before sunrise was that it gets just a degree or two colder just before sunrise to begin with...You might not notice it if you were already numb from the cold to begin with....just saying. But that particular service...always felt like I missed something from not going to it.
And that temperature drop reminded me of something...
In Genesis 3:8
Then the Man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
This is trying to explain in Hebrew poetry that this took place at sunrise...
Basically they were hiding and afraid at Sunrise because they knew that they had done wrong.
In Genesis 19:15 Lot gets rescued by the Angels and the city was destroyed....at sunrise.
Genesis 32:24 Jacob is scared of meeting Esau and is alone when he wrestles with God and gets his new name Israel...at sunrise
Mannah appears when?
Joshua 6:15 The walls of Jericho fell...at sunrise
Judges 6:36 Gideon got his answers on the fleece at sunrise.
Isaiah 37:36 The seige of Jerusalem by Senaccherib is over and people can eat. Lots of dead enemies...at Sunrise
(This story is also told in 2Kings and Chronicles)
Daniel 6:19 Daniel is lifted out of the Lion's den at Sunrise by the King after having a sleepless night. (didn't work out as well for those who pointed their fingers at Daniel.)
Jonah 4:7 God sent a worm at Sunrise to eat the vine so it would wither...this is after Jonah had been spit back up by the fish and had done his preaching tour...he was sitting outside the city waiting for it's destruction and was angry and miserable.
Mark 6:47 The fourth Watch is a time period roughly between 3-6am. Pretty much Sunrise is when Jesus would start his walk on the water.
Easter morning...the rooster crows at sunrise for Peter the day before...
Everyone is hiding and scared now that the Sabbath is over...Lazarus doesn't want to die again, Jesus is dead...Mary comes to the grave.
Then...after it is known that Jesus is risen and running about...Peter is fishing all night again. But at Sunrise Jesus calls to him and tells him to fish on the other side of the boat. And when they get to shore Jesus already has some fish cooking and bread already freshly made. Peter, after his denial, is scared about his status with Jesus.
Today we are all having to be scared and hiding inside our homes. Scared we might catch this virus or scared that we will be fine but in turn infect someone we love dearly.
But I am ready, willing, and waiting for Sunrise. I am not the same lad as I was in my youth...
How about YOU?
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