2013-01-29
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We all know that Israelhas suffered unprecedented trials over the last 3000 years, and yet God has said in PS 105: 15, “Do not touch My anointed ones; do My prophets no harm.” God meant these words, and is in a covenant relationship with His chosen people (the Jews, and including those Gentile believers grafted in according to RO 11: 17). But truthfully, there has been disobedience on the part of Israel, which our God couldn’t ignore. Otherwise the statements in RO 3: 26 wouldn’t hold water. “He did it [the sacrifice of the Atonement] to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One Who justified those who have faith in Jesus.” Before the giving of the Law, no one knew what was right in God’s eyes, so nothing was done to punish wrongs. After the giving the Law, people were told what was right and wrong in God’s eyes, but their legalistic approach showed little understanding of the Spirit of God’s laws-only the letter of the law. This issue was taken up in RO 2: 29, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.” Herein, we have some inkling of reasons for Israel’s disobedience. In view of the imperfections of human believers in Christ, we have no right to be judgmental toward Israel [Remember MT 7: 1-2]. Our time on earth is the time of an internal war going on in each of us, between the desires of the flesh and the teaching of the Holy Spirit [RO 7: 14-25].
Having said all of this, we need to look into Israel’s disobedience, attempting to surmise God’s responses to it by trying to stretch toward His perspective, even through we surely fall short of its totality. God allowed for gaps in Israel’s protection when she didn’t live up to her covenant relationship with Him. He did this by using her enemies as a rod of punishment. Without rehearsing all of Israel’s history, I can give some examples of this. For one: her trials during the time of the disagreements between Egypt to her south and the Selucids [a combination of Greek and Syrian cultures] to the north during the time of the attempts at wiping out the Jewish culture in favor of Hellenic [Greek] culture. We can note when Antiochus IV Epiphanes wrested the Jerusalem temple out of Jewish hands and committed the first Abomination of Desolation [sacrificing a swine on it’s highest altar] in 168 BC [DN 11: 31]. Israel’s very geographic location certainly qualifies, because she is surrounded by enemies on all sides, except the west, which is theMediterranean Sea. Another example would be the seemingly intractable problem of anti-Semitism that still exists today but reached a height in the late 1930’s AD beginning with Kristalnacht [Nov. 1938], when the Nazis broke all the glass windows of Jewish businesses all over eastern Europe, signaling the beginning of the most horrific period of all, the Holocaust. This misery lasted until 1945 and led to the systematic extermination of 6, 000,000 Jews plus other sympathizers in the concentration camps. Most of you know I lost a portion of my own family in that atrocity. More examples are seen in the first and second dyasporas (scattering and loss of nationhood forIsrael). These came first in the Assyrian captivity of the northern state of Israel in 722 BC and Babylonian captivity of the southern state, Judah, in 586 BC, both lasting until 445 BC when Cyrus of Persia began releasing the Jewish captives in waves to go home and rebuild Israel. The second dyaspora came when the Romans sackedJerusalem in 70 AD, and it lasted until the re-establishment ofIsrael on 5-14-1948. And yet we must remember thatIsrael was never totally destroyed or went out of existence. But she was punished indeed!
God has never allowed such punishments without sound reasons, or with unmeasured bravado. Such can be seen in the fact that Israel still has people [GN 12: 2-3], a land [GN 15: 18-21], and the promise of God’s Seed [GA 3: 16]. These, you will recognize, are the elements of the Abrahamic Covenant, which God has never broken. Furthermore, the Davidic Covenant [2 SAM 7: 12-13] another promise is that God’s Seed [the Lord Jesus Christ] will arise from the royal line of David and eventually will rule forever [IS 9: 6 and 11: 1]. This promise is repeated in Daniel’s prophecy in DN 2: 34-35. If you are either unfamiliar with these prophecies or have forgotten them, please be sure to read the citations here. If anyone were to ask me, what passage would you choose as your favorite, and you can only choose one, which one would it be? My answer would be the repeat of this prophecy found in IS 53: 1-12, hands down! We can’t know ahead what will happen with today’s Israel, but we surely know she is under the watchful eye of her enemies, countries like Iran, with a burgeoning nuclear program, and organizations like Hizbollah (from Syria in the north) and Hamas from the east and south of Israel with their propensity for launching punishing rocket attacks from hidden bunkers into Israel. We can know thatIsrael continues to be disobedient, although for the time being she hasn’t been brokering land for peace deals lately. But we do know that more of what we’ve seen in this devotion is surely ahead. We only know the final outcome is outlined in the book of Revelation. Each of us individually needs to lose no time in signing on to God’s team, so that we can enjoy the protection of spiritual eternal life that obedient faith in His Son provides.
PRAYER: O Lord, our Strong Tower, we beseech You to continue to love Israel and the Gentile believers. We know there are many who don’t believe now, but who potentially will believe before You draw the line on when no more can come to faith in Your Son. We don’t know when that time is, but we do know that it will come. MT 24: 36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.” How do we know You will draw the line? REV 12: 12 answers the question. “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you! He is fill with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” We not only pledge our faith in the Lord Jesus, but we also recognize how crucial it is that we share that faith with those who will listen to the truth. We also understand, Dearest Father, our covenant responsibility to spend enough time in the Scriptures to know them well enough to share them with accuracy and intention. 2 TIM 1: 12-14, “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the Treasure entrusted to you-guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit Who lives in you.” It is Your intention that we learn from the mistakes of others, including Israel. We look to You for understanding of what we have observed and the self-discipline we need to study history and learn from it. You are a wise, loving, and patient God, and we love You for this and so much more. Rehearsing our own history with you both individually and corporately reminds us that You deserve our undying praise, honor, thanks, loyalty, and respect. We offer you these things, small gifts in comparison to the great blessings You give us. You are a generous and gracious God Who keeps His covenant promises [PS 138: 8; PS 16: 2]. We worship You with all our hearts in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Israel’s chief acts of disobedience have come in the form of idolatry of one type or another. Israel is surely not alone in this; we have plenty of it in our own history, including the materialism and moral relativism practiced in our society today in North America. We surely must learn from history, or we too be swallowed up by the devil and his evil, as so many other cultures have been. In the meanwhile, as we are God’s covenant partners, He takes on our enemies, just as David took on Jonathan’s enemies, and Jonathan took on David’s. That’s what covenant partners do. As long as we do what we can to keep up our end of the Covenant of Grace, we can expect that God will deliver us from our enemies. When and how this deliverance will come will be taken up in next week’s devotion. Part of our own responsibilities as God’s covenant partners will be to step into line with Him and take up His causes. Each of us was created to be capable of doing this. Anything we do for God is no waste of time [1PET 4:10]. Our Strong Tower is not in the habit of giving up easily on those who keep on working to live in obedient faithfulness to Him. Doing this on an ongoing basis isn’t easy, but it is surely worth it. This is especially true when we think of all the blessings our God so generously gives us, not the least of these is true freedom-the kind that comes from knowing the truth [JN 8: 31-32]. The only sensible response to our God is to lift our hands in thankfulness and praise to Him! So, without delay, let us offer Him thanks and praise forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
<-- Back to Archives