Easter

The Devil Thought He’d Found the Perfect Weapon

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment
Jesus seated on a cross holding keys, symbolizing victory over death and Satan, with golden light breaking through clouds

What was meant for destruction became the symbol of ultimate victory.

Satan’s plan looked genius. Don’t just kill the Son of God. Kill Him in the most brutal, agonizing, publicly humiliating way possible, branded as a criminal. Make a public spectacle of Him so that all who follow Him will be shamed and run for cover.

As far as the devil was concerned, there could be no better weapon than a Roman cross.

Except…

The devil knows the Word of God and knows it well. He’s been twisting it since the beginning as he’s tried to lead astray everyone he possibly can—including Jesus. (That attempt failed gloriously.)

But knowing the Word isn’t the same as understanding it. He missed a world of clues. Let’s take a look.

The Bronze Serpent — Lifted Up

The Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake
and attach it to a pole.
All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!
Numbers 21:8 (NLT)

Jesus directly connects this to Himself:

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake
on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man
must be lifted up, so that everyone who
believes in him will have eternal life.
John 3:14–15 (NLT)

This imagery? Being lifted up on a pole—that’s crucifixion. And Jesus told everyone it was going to happen.

Cursed Is Everyone Hung on a Tree

Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
Deuteronomy 21:22–23

Paul makes the connection explicit:

But Christ has rescued us from the curse
pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross,
he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.
For it is written in the Scriptures,
“Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Galatians 3:13 (NLT)

Jesus going to the Cross for us was all about taking the curse. He had to be hung on a tree in order to take our place.

Pierced Hands and Feet

…They have pierced my hands and feet.
Psalm 22:16 (NLT)

David wrote this psalm long before crucifixion like this was practiced. Beheading was more common in his day, and that doesn’t involve pierced hands and feet.

Public Exposure and Mocking

Everyone who sees me mocks me.
They sneer and shake their heads, saying,
“Is this the one who relies on the LORD?
Then let the LORD save him!
If the LORD loves him so much,
let the LORD rescue him!”
Psalm 22:7–8 (NLT)

Public ridicule was part of the plan, and the cross fit it perfectly.

Bones Not Broken

For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous;
not one of them is broken!
Psalm 34:20 (NLT)

This was fulfilled in:

When they came to Jesus,
they saw that he was already dead,
so they didn’t break his legs.
John 19:33 (NLT)

In Roman crucifixions, the criminals’ legs were often broken to speed death. But they did not break Jesus’ bones, and this connects to the Passover Lamb from Exodus 12:46 (NLT) where they were commanded, “…and do not break any of its bones.”

Jesus IS the Passover Lamb, the Final Sacrifice. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

Dividing Garments / Casting Lots

They divide my garments among themselves
and throw dice for my clothing.
Psalm 22:18 (NLT)

This is an oddly specific crucifixion detail that was fulfilled in John 19:23–24.

“Lifted Up” = The Means of Drawing All People

“And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself.“
He said this to indicate how He was going to die.
John 12:32–33 (NLT)

He made it clear how he was going to die.

Yes, the Roman cross seemed to be the perfect weapon. But the devil was, as Shakespeare so elegantly put it, “Hoist with his own petard.” Satan’s plan blew up in his face—and Jesus was left holding all the keys.

And now the Cross is a beautiful thing, which brings me to the picture you see above. It’s an image that has lived as a concept in my head for a very long time, one in which our triumphant Savior uses what was meant to destroy Him as a place of rest—and a reminder of His ultimate victory.

It wasn’t just that Jesus had to die.
He had to be lifted up.

As my Resurrection Sunday gift to you, here are two versions of this image:

Download The Perfect Weapon Web Header

Download The Perfect Weapon Wallpaper

They are AI creations (Thank you ChatGPT), so I claim no copyright, but I would appreciate it if you would keep my watermark should you choose to use or share them.

Sunday is on the way!

And remember, Jesus is too. If you haven’t already, now is the time to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. He died so that you could truly live, and at some point in the (I believe) very near future He will return to catch us away to be with Him forever.

The other option—choosing Hell over Him—is unthinkable. Don’t go there.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

God Tells Secrets

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

On the Saturday before Resurrection Sunday (AKA Easter), I “happened” to be studying Genesis 22. The word happened is in quotation marks here because I don’t for one minute think it was coincidence. I’d been trying to study this chapter for a couple of weeks, but hadn’t had enough cell signal in my apartment to run the Through the Word app. (Awesome app: If you don’t have it, get it. Use it.)

So, on the day before one of my favorite days of the year, I read one of the most challenging chapters in God’s Word, and the timing was perfect.

You probably know the story. God makes a request of Abraham, asking him to sacrifice his only son. You can tell going in that something isn’t quite right, because God has a clear stance on human sacrifice. (He’s totally opposed.) So… God’s up to something. Right?

This chapter is so full of rich details that it’s easy to miss some things. Like the fact that it’s God who speaks to Abraham in verse 1, but after Abraham proves himself it’s God’s Son, Jesus, who does the talking. I can’t go into all the details, though. Let’s just look at this.

Obviously, Abraham was convinced God was up to something too. He knew God well enough, and so completely trusted God’s promise to give him countless descendants through Isaac, that he dared obey. As Hebrews 11:18-19 (NET) tells us, “God had told him, ‘Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,’ and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there.”

Sound familiar? It should. In writing, it’s called foreshadowing when something is a warning or indication of some future event.

When Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the offering, he wasn’t just speaking about their personal sacrifice. He didn’t realize it, of course, but looking from this side of the cross we know he was also prophesying about the Ultimate Sacrifice. Abraham didn’t withhold his only son, his child of promise, and God didn’t withhold His only Son, His child of Promise.

Perhaps my favorite detail in Genesis 22 is one I had either never noticed before or hadn’t recalled. In verse 14 it says, “And Abraham called the name of that place ‘The Lord provides.’ It is said to this day, ‘In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.’”

And it was. On that very same mountain, Mount Moriah, outside of Jerusalem, IT – Salvation – was provided when God gave up His only Son. A proverb spoken for about 2,000 years in the future tense was fulfilled when Jesus shouted (SHOUTED, my friends! Have you ever noticed that?!) “It is finished!”

Like I said, God’s timing is perfect. Due to weak cell signal, I’d been unable to do the Through the Word study for this chapter until the very day I needed to see it. It’s such a timely reminder of how completely God has everything planned out, and how wholly we can trust Him.

He is risen!
He is risen indeed!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

He Let Everyone Hear

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

In Luke 23:34 NLT, you read, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.‘“ This line always makes me pause, because it shows His tremendous love for the people, His mercy, and His grace, but there is another verse in this chapter that also makes me sit up and take notice.

Think about every crucifixion scene you’ve ever watched. Almost always, you hear Jesus gasp out words just before he dies.

But that’s not what happened.

“Then Jesus shouted, ‘Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!’ And with those words he breathed his last.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:46‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Did you see it?

Jesus SHOUTED.

At the end, He left no room for doubt. With a voice that could be heard by everyone present, this man for whom shouting should have been a physical impossibility (google crucifixion) let everyone know that God was His father and that He was still the one in control. By all rights, it should have taken several more hours for Him to die, but He very publicly died when HE chose.

Everyone present had to recognize the significance, so it’s really no surprise that the soldier made his declaration in verse 47.

They were all there either to mourn or to mock and jeer. They were also there, whether they liked it or not, to hear.

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

You are the Tabernacle

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

Image from searchisaiah.org

Did you know that the Tabernacle is a type and shadow of you? Well, of the born again Christian anyway. It sounds crazy, I know, but stick with me.

First, on the off chance that you don’t know about the Tabernacle, it was built by Moses, at God’s command, so that there would be a place for God to come down and meet with His people. Its purpose, or one of its purposes, was to bring God closer to man and man closer to God. That’s putting it extremely simplistically; it’s a topic that is well worth deep study.

Now, back to us…to you. I was recently reminded that when you look inside the human body you see something distinct. There are oxygenated blood vessels that are red, unoxygenated blood vessels that are blue, and vessels carrying mixed blood that are purple; these help make up the fabric of the human body. Inside the Tabernacle, you find fabric woven of red, blue, and purple cords.

Covering the outside of the Tabernacle, you have skin (animal skins, of course). Ditto the human body. Another fascinating parallel.

Now look at John 1. John is talking about God, The Word, who is Jesus, and how Jesus became flesh, or human. In the Old Testament, God came down and settled on the Tabernacle. Here we see that God has come down to dwell with us in the Tabernacle that is Jesus Christ.

Move on to John 2:19 and you find, “‘All right,’ Jesus replied, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'” Then, in verse 21, “But when Jesus said ‘this temple,’ he meant his own body.” The temple of that day was, of course, the modern version of Moses’ tabernacle.

Which brings us to 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,.”

Jesus’ body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christian, your body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit. God created this temple for many purposes, but one stands out: To bring God closer to man and man closer to God.

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday. Let’s not take lightly the magnitude of what Jesus did for us, what we gained in His resurrection, or the purposes God has set for us to fulfill today.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

The Passover Lamb

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

It’s Passover, or will be at sundown.

Yes, we in Christian culture know it as Good Friday, and it is a VERY Good Friday. A few years back, however, I grew hungry for more knowledge of the Jewish Jesus. I had a desire to understand where Jesus and His disciples were coming from, so I began researching more about what it meant to be a Jew. As I learned, Good Friday became even more awesome than before.

Passover isn’t just a celebration of God delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt. It is so much more, and what happens during this feast lies not only at the roots of Jewish culture but that of Christianity as well. The Jews flocked to Jerusalem with their required sacrifices, those spotless lambs they had been keeping carefully for this, The Lord’s Feast. This was no mere offering up of the life of a perfect lamb to them; it was spiritual life and death. Only if they brought an acceptable sacrifice would their sins be covered for the following year – and only for the year.

Think on that a moment. They put forth a massive amount of effort to fulfill their responsibility in this. Whether they counted it labor or honor, it was WORK to preserve a spotless lamb and bring it to the Temple, to wait their turn to actually make their offering in the midst of a chaotic symphony of bleating and talking and prayers and…and the shedding of so much blood. They did all of this trusting God to cover their sins for a single year, planning to return the following year to do the same.

There is much more to Passover, but this is the point to which I wished to bring us. On THAT Passover, THE Perfect Lamb offered Himself up instead. From that moment on, these annual sacrifices became unnecessary because His blood didn’t simply cover our sins for a single year; rather, it washed them away forever.

Oh, how He loved us!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C