I use the word “virtues” in quotes because we typically think of virtues as being for people and not the Lord. Thematically, we are discussing the human virtues in chapters 21 through 30, so what better time to discuss the morally praise-worthy attributes of God?
Lesson for Adults
Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017
25.5 Seven Key “Virtues” of God
---------------------------------Key
Question---------------------------------
How do worship attributes of God
relate to and reflect in me?
-------------------------------Key
Idea---------------------------------
By faith and obedience, God’s
glorious attributes can be reflected into virtues in my life.
-----------------------------------Key
Verse---------------------------------
Amen! Blessing and glory and
wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever
and ever. Amen.”
Revelation 7:12
Revelation 7:12
Palm branches are
prophetic of the first and second comings of Christ; that is, palm branches
were used in the Triumphal Entry of Christ to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, just a week before His resurrection
nearly 2,000 years ago. Also, palm branches are prophetically stated in
Revelation 7:9 as being held by those who will be delivered from the Great
Tribulation, just prior to Christ’s Second Coming.
The Old Testament prophecy
can be found in Leviticus 23:40, where the Israelites were to initiate the
feast of booths or tabernacles in September by taking palm branches as a symbol
of rejoicing and triumph:
“‘And you shall
take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of
palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall
rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.”
Dr. Henry Morris,
a prolific Biblical scholar of the early 20th century, said the Feast
of Tabernacles has great prophetical significance. As the seventh and final of
the Levitical feasts, “The Feast of Tabernacles speaks of the coming eternal
rest in the holy city when ‘the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people’ (Rev. 21:3)”.
The gospel of John records the people in Jesus’
day taking specifically “palm branches from palm trees” for His triumphal entry
on the Sunday prior to His crucifixion. It appears to be a significant
parallel, particularly noted by the Apostle John, who wrote both the final gospel
and the final book of the New Testament.
Palm branches
remind us of the temporary tabernacles or “tents” we currently have (that is,
our bodies) and that these bodies will someday be replaced with a permanent dwelling.
In a sense, Christ dwelling in us is a temporary dwelling in our mortal,
finite, feeble bodies. At the end of Peter’s life, he twice referred to his
body as a “tent” (2 Peter 1:13, 14), the same word he used when he wanted to
build a tabernacle for Moses and Elijah at the Mount of Transfiguration (see
Matt. 17:4).
12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things,
though you know and are established in the present truth.
13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent,
to stir you up by reminding you,
14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent,
just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
15 Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you
always have a reminder of these things after my decease.
though you know and are established in the present truth.
13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent,
to stir you up by reminding you,
14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent,
just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
15 Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you
always have a reminder of these things after my decease.
Both the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:40 and the Triumphal
Entry on Palm Sunday cause us to look forward to Jesus’ second coming, as seen
in Rev. 7:9. In that passage, it says that a “great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes,
peoples, and tongues,” will be in heaven before the throne of God and
before Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Also, those people will be clothed with white
robes, with palm branches in their hands. Like at the Triumphal Entry, where
the people shouted “Hosanna,” or cries for salvation, the people in heaven who
have come out of the Great Tribulation (see Rev. 7:14) are also proclaiming
triumph to God for the “Salvation of our God.”
As you prepare for Palm Sunday, rejoice and give thanks to the Lord for His Salvation.
