The surety of Him who is faithful and true

"The surety is the guarantee of the debts of one party by another. A surety is an organization or person that assumes the responsibility of paying the debt in case the debtor policy defaults or is unable to make the payments. The party that guarantees the debt is referred to as the surety, or as the guarantor.Mar 1, 2018

Suretyship is a very specialized line of insurance that is created whenever one party guarantees performance of an obligation by another party. There are three parties to the agreement:

·         The principal is the party that undertakes the obligation.

·         The surety guarantees the obligation will be performed.

·         The obligee is the party who receives the benefit of the bond.

 I think I understand.

The obligee is the party owed.

The principal is the party that owes.

The surety pays the obligee if the principal can't pay.

If that's correct then let us apply suretyship to the sin dilemma.

It's simple but complex.

God the Father is the great Obligee, the party who owns the kingdom. Hence, the phrase, Kingdom of God. He holds the deed to the universe of animate and inanimate creation. His title is "the Ancient of days", "Him that liveth for ever and ever", "who only hath immortality" (1Tim. 6:16). To Him all war reparations and glory are owed.

The principal party that owes is humanity, made especially in the image of the Father and Son, but sold themselves to the manipulator.

The Surety is Jesus, the Son of God, Messiah the Prince. Why or how did He get that hard duty?

Some biblical history throws light on this. Jacob (ya 'aqob) means "heel catcher" maybe like "stumbling stone" or "someone who trips up others", or in our venacular, liar, cheat, thief. He had the gene for deception, and although Jesus redeemed Jacob of lying, the lie gene passed down to his boys.

So, along the way his boys lied to him about selling their own brother into slavery (Judah's idea). So they saw Joseph off while counting the money. For all their dreaming about what to buy with all that money, they couldn't hear Joseph's cries for mercy.

But they couldn't dare let Daddy know or they would be sure to suffer. So they killed a kid goat, wiped it's blood on Joseph's coat and gave it to Jacob. Certainly, Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, was killed by a wild animal. Oh, the bitter grieving! Jacob was still paying for his past mistakes.

But his boys, who hated Joseph, didn't know how deep their father's love went. He had always been affectionate, but they didn't care for it like Jacob and Joseph did. After many years of mourning on their father's part and some suffering and maturity on their part, they inched more and more toward feeling for their dad and accepting a disturbed conscience.

At this point Providence could send a drought and famine that affected the whole Middle East. The boys were men now and went down to Egypt to buy grain. But the Prime Minister of Egypt treated them like spies and threw the most belligerent brother in jail and said if they wanted more food later, they better bring their youngest brother. Other things happened that made them even more scared.

Eventually, the famine didn't break and the family needed more grain. But Jacob utterly refused to give up Benjamin, like the Prime Minister required in order to get more food. Jacob wailed, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." (Gen. 42:38).

That was the end of that. But a few weeks went by and all the food was almost eaten. So, Jacob told his sons to buy grain again. Now Judah got more involved because he held the position of highest authority among the sons.

"If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you." (Gen. 43:4,5).

When it began to look like his father was going to over extend the camps' food supply by clinging to Benjamin that's when Judah pulled out his last card.

"Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever." (Vs. 8,9).

Well, the Prime Minister was Joseph, their brother who they never had suspected could be almost royalty in the mightiest nation in the world.

Then it got real complicated again as Joseph continued his cat and mouse disciplining to know if his brothers were repentant and humbler. He finally got his brothers to rip their coats for the thought of their father dying soon because his children were stuck in a dungeon somewhere, especially the only reminder he had of Joseph, his young son, Benjamin. The Prime Minister wanted to keep Benjamin in ward.

So Judah boldly but meekly spoke to the second in Egyptian power.

"Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life; it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I

pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren." (Vs. 33,34).

Judah pleaded with Joseph to make him a slave and to let Benjamin go back to Jacob.

This is what Jesus did. Jesus was surety for His human race. "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." (Heb. 7:22).

We were so beloved to Him and His Father, the Father's life was bound up in ours, that He promised His Father that He would bring us safely back to Their home again and set us before the King. Or, He if He failed to redeem us then He would take our place in the grave and bear the blame forever. And knowing all this was the plan since the great controversy during His earthly ministry, He maintained a steady mind and constant mercy and truth, patience and kindness for disciples, multitudes, and religious enemies. Especially at the very night of His Gethsemane tribulation and the mock trial, the Jewish beatings and Roman whippings, He held a king's mein and spoke with appropriate tones. Till His last minute of life, His Father was His earnest counselor and comforter, though No one would answer. "Jesus, made an High Priest ever."

"For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath...maketh the Son (a High Priest), who is consecrated for evermore." (Vs. 28).

"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Heb. 6:17-20).