Let's reread the Bible verses in the picture:
Yehowah's commandment to Israel:
Yeshua's commandment to the apostles:
From those Bible passages it is clear that Yehowah’s goal was to make the people of Israel obedient to his teaching and that now, in the era of the New Covenant, all nations would be obedient to his will. Not only that we humans believe in his existence, but that we also begin to obey him!
Unfortunately, ancient Israel deviated far from that goal. Likewise, they and all pagan nations have deviated far from that will of our Creator today. If we had been obedient, we would have learned to know what a good and loving Savior we have and we would have achieved deep peace throughout the world.
The Bible already told us in advance how deep and destructive the fall of our ancestors in paradise was. At that time, Cain, the firstborn of Adam, murdered his younger brother Abel in jealousy. Cain felt in his heart that Yehowah did not love him because He rejected his burnt offering, but loved Abel and his burnt offering.
Since our Creator knew in advance the depth of our apostasy, His love for us required Him to make such an easy plan of salvation that it is not based at all on our merit or works, but only on faith and trust in what He did for us through His Son on the cross of Calvary!
What did Yehowah do at Golgotha?
He was with His Son HaMashiach Yeshua at that moment, too, because Yeshua had shown perfect obedience to His Father's will in the midst of infinite and indescribably terrible suffering. Only then, when Yeshua had fulfilled all that the Holy Scriptures had long before foretold about Him, did He die for us.
At that very moment, when Yeshua hung on the cross and said, "It is finished!" the Father departed from Him and cast the sins of all mankind onto His Son. Then Yeshua became the atoning sacrifice for our sins, the sacrificial lamb, and we receive all our sins forgiven by believing in His name, His act of redemption and mercy on our behalf.
Yeshua bore our sins and our sicknesses. When we believe in Him, we do not have to die for our sins, nor do we bear our sicknesses, if we believe that He also suffered them on the cross of Calvary, as Isaiah foresaw in the Holy Spirit about 700 years before the events of Calvary and prophesied: Isaiah 53:3-7
>>3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of Elohim, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have each one turned to his own way; and Yehowah made meet in Him the iniquity of all of us.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a ewe before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.<<
What happened to death then?
Our ancestors only faced death as a result of the Fall. Before that, they were without fear of death. Since death is the result of sin, it lost its power over us who believe in Adonai Yeshua as our sin offering. Therefore, we do not have to die. We go straight from here to Paradise, which is in Hades. Let's read: Luke 23:40-43
>>40 But answering, the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear Elohim, for you are in the same judgment?
41 And we indeed justly, for we receive things worthy of what we did. But this One did nothing wrong.
42 And he said to Yeshua, Adonai, remember me when You come in Your kingdom.
43 And Yeshua said to him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.<<
After his death Yeshua went straight to Hades (Sheol), where he was for three days and three nights, as he himself had prophesied before his death. Only then did he rise from the dead. Death was defeated on Mount Moriah, or Zion, at Golgotha. This had been prophesied about 700 years earlier. We read in Isa. 25:6-8 and Hos. 13:14
Isaiah 25:6-8
>>6 And Yehowah Tzva'ot shall make a feast of fat things for all the peoples in this mountain; a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, refined wine on the lees.
7 And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering which covers all people, and the veil that is woven over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory! And the Adonai Yehowah will wipe away tears from all faces. And He shall reprove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for Yehowah has spoken.<<
Hosea 13:14
>>I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.<<
We can also read about this unique event in human history elsewhere in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Covenant: 1 Cor. 15:51-54
>>51 Behold, I speak a mystery to you: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed.
52 In a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet; for a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the word that has been written, "Death was swallowed up in victory."<<
This is how I began to believe in Yeshua
My mother was an Orthodox Laestadian, and so was my father, before divorce. My father still did believe in God. My mother taught me the evening prayer and what the Savior means to us in terms of salvation. My parents divorced and I was taken into my father's care when I was 5 years old. That was my first really big answer to prayer.
My father had remarried at the time and did not attend any spiritual events, but he considered Orthodox Laestadianism to be the only true Christian revival movement. I found it foreign and the Holy Spirit first led me to believing Lutherans. There were believing teachers in elementary school. Their lives testified to genuine faith.
We moved from Lohja to Siuntio in 1961. When I was 12 years old, alone at home, I wondered about the meaning of my life and the future. They seemed really dark, because my parents could not afford to send me to a fee-paying school. I thought that I would be left without any professional training and would only get a bad job.
It was autumn and the wind was strong outside and the leaves of the deciduous trees in the yard were rustling in the wind. I sat on the floor and wondered what help I could get from Jesus while I was living on earth and then beyond the line of time(?) I spoke to God in my thoughts: "If you really exist or not, then at this moment I decide to follow the teachings of Jesus in my life."
I continued: "Even if you didn't exist, I think Jesus' teachings to love You above all else and to love my neighbors as myself are the best possible. If it happens that after struggling my whole life in misery and deprivation, I finally reach the glory of heaven, then what on earth will I do there forever?"
I pondered further: "If you really exist, then I won't be happy in heaven if I have to sing gloomy hymns there for all eternity. I think it's asking too much to believe in you without personal certainty that you even exist. I ask you: Tell me, what will I do in heaven forever if I get there?"
Then something supernatural happened! The wind outside died down completely and the sound of cars passing by ended. I felt the presence of an invisible being and felt that he loved me. Then the auditory connection from eternity to time opened and I heard a someone speaking to me in a gentle male voice from the place of my heart. He said:
"You will gain strength. You will soar on wings like eagles. You will run and not grow weary. You will walk and not be weary."
What a huge promise! I was completely amazed for a moment and then I replied:
"Now I know that you really exist, because you answered the question I was just asking in my mind. I am very grateful to you for that! As I promised earlier, I will compete in the race of faith, helping my fellow man. Please, remind me of this promise when I graduate from a profession and move into my own apartment and if I have then forgotten this our conversation."
He also answered that request of mine about 10 years later! I had first studied at the 4-year Strömberg Mechanical Engineering School and immediately after that at HTOL (Helsinki Technical University) and in the spring before I graduated as a mechanical construction technician, some Christian dropped a flyer through the mailbox of my rented apartment. I read through it.
I had a feeling that the message I was about to read was from heaven for me! The flyer read the entire chapter 1 Cor. 13. It is a chapter of love. I read it through four times, through tears. I signed up for the free Bible course advertised in the flyer as a correspondence course from the Christian Literature Society. It involved studying the Gospel of John and it was good!
The following point in this context is very important: The author of that leaflet was the Finnish Pentecostal Movement and the teacher advised me to learn by heart at least the 10 verses from the Gospel of John that spoke to me the most. I did so and it has been very useful in the events of my life since then.
This is also important from the time of that course: I was advised to ask at least one question during the course. Therefore, I asked the leader of that correspondence Bible course a question. She was a woman. I asked her only one question: "How should I understand the existence and person of Satan, or the Devil?"
She answered: "Satan as a separate being does not exist, but when a person allows his mind to rise against God, that event is called Satan. That is, man's wrong choice of how to relate to the teachings of his Creator." However, that teaching was in clear contradiction with the overall revelation of the Bible!
After reading the answer, I immediately understood that the woman did not know the Bible properly, nor the enemy of the soul, Satan or the Devil, as it reveals! He is indeed a separate person, whose goal has been the destruction of people starting from Paradise! About him as a person, Adonai Yeshua taught this: John 8:42-44
>>42 Yeshua said unto them (to the Jews who opposed his teaching), If Yehowah were your Father, you would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from Yehowah; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do you not understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my word.
44 You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.<<
_ _ _
Then and therefore, in addition to the course, I started reading the Bible from the beginning every evening, after my homework just before going to bed. One evening, when I reached the end of Isaiah chapter 40, it brought back to my mind vividly and in detail what I had already forgotten and what I had experienced about 10 years earlier in Siuntio one autumn evening. The verses are as follows: Isaiah 40:30-31
>>30 Even youths are faint and fatigued, and young men surely shall stumble;
31 but the ones waiting for Yehowah shall renew power; they shall go up with wings as the eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint!<<
If you wish, you can read more about the stages of my religious life from the link at the end of this writing to my free online book called "The Seventh River". (P.S. 1)
Songs suitable for the topic
Obs. Our Savior's original name in Hebrew is Yeshua HaMashiach HaNotzri
P.S. 1 You can check out the interesting stages of my life from the link below. My life has been a great adventure. There have been successes and setbacks. Adonai Yeshua has always helped me!
https://seventh-river.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-seventh-river.html
https://yakov-tutkielmia-sapattina.blogspot.com/2026/06/pohdintaa-sapattina-1262026.html
