2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
There are many reasons for us to pay attention to God’s promises in the Abrahamic covenant. Remember that He promised: 1) a nation of people; 2) a specified area of land, and 3) a King. (The capital here is not a typo). By the time that God had, through Moses, delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and given them the Law, it was clear that the first of these covenant promises had been kept. At that point in history, God was about to be at work keeping his second promise, that of land. Once again after first having laid out the boundaries in GN 15: 18-21, He mentions them again in EX 23: 27-33. “I will make the people who oppose you afraid of Me; I will bring confusion amongst the people with whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you. I will throw your enemies into panic; I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance. I will not drive them out within a year’s time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you. Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Euphrates River and from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance. Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods. Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against Me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you.”
We are commanded to believe every word of the Bible, and that does not exclude these two descriptions of the land which is Israel’s by Divine right. If we look at today’s map of Israel, only a tiny part of the land described in the above-mentioned citations is now held by her. There are some powerful messages in EX 23: 27-33 that are more than worth our prayerful consideration. To begin, Israel’s very existence in 2001 tells us that God has no plan to ever give up on her. That is supported by the prophecies of ZECH 13: 8-9 & RO 11: 25. That the ancient Hebrews were actually able to vanquish all the idolatrous pagan people God had promised they would, shows His supreme and sovereign power to do what He promises. Our own experience when we obey God is enough to remind us that He takes His covenant promises to us seriously enough to always keep them. President G.W. Bush recently gave a press conference in which he explained that the war against terrorism might take a long time to win, but that he was confident we would win it. Look at the way God is at work in (29-30) above when He says, “I will drive them out little by little.” God is doing something here which would only be done with those for whom He cares deeply. He is revealing his strategy, so the ancient Jews (and us) would understand the wisdom of it. Had He seen the Jews as His enemies, He would have never done that. It’s the same principle that Christ teaches in JN 15: 15, “I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father.”
I mentioned President Bush’s press conference (given the night of 10-10-01) because of the confidence and peace one could see in his demeanor, a peace that could have only come from being obedient to God and being aware of God’s sovereign power in the eventual adjudication of the evil terrorists who perpetrated the attacks on NYC and Washington, DC. I’m not confusing any of this with a discussion of Israel’s eventual boundaries, because I truly believe that what is happening in today’s world is: 1) very connected with the promises of the Abrahamic covenant and 2) has everything to do with Israel’s existence. My opinion is borne out by the fact that Osama bin Laden actually spoke about the existence of a Palestinian state in his pre-taped vitriolic ranting the day the coalition began bombing in Afghanistan. We can be sure that he opposes God in wanting Israel off the face of the earth, a fact which I believe will seal his fate and that of all who oppose Israel’s existence. RO6: 23a, “The wages of sin is death.” We all saw this on TV.
Do I believe that God will keep His covenant promise that He will provide Israel land with its borders as described in the Bible? You bet I do! Why does this matter to each of us? It’s because a loving Abba prompted His Son to say to us in JN 14: 1-2, “’Do not be worried and upset,’ Jesus told them. ‘Believe in God and believe also in Me. There are many mansions in My Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.’” Since God has claimed Jerusalem as His “city on a hill” [PS 2: 6, IS 31:4, MT 5: 14-16] and has told us that we will be joint-heirs with Christ to His Kingdom [RO 8: 17], we can take comfort in knowing that both promises of the land and a King will come to fruition. Be patient, obedient, trusting, and confident, Dear Ones. The wait is worth it.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have commanded us to stay daily in Your word and to be connected to You through prayer, our congregations, and our circumstances. When we do, You gift us with Your perspective on world events going on around us. You also allow us to have the discernment to recognize the increasing advancement of sin like that which motivates the terrorists of Al Queada, Hamas, Hizbollah, and the Talibans. Now more than ever before, we must understand that You have equipped us to do spiritual warfare and to be victorious in Christ. You call upon us to trust in You to keep Your covenant promises, and You ask us to do the same. If we understand that Israel’s very existence is Your will, then we will act in a way that honors You with regard to it. We will appreciate the significance of the Abrahamic covenant as it applies to us today and forever. We dedicate ourselves to accepting You as the Lord of our lives, to trusting that You will see to our protection, to taking whatever direction You have for us, and to offering You our humble and heartfelt thanks that You sacrificed Your Son on the cross (so we could be saved) and gave us the Holy Spirit (so that we could have the discernment to make Godly decisions). We come before Your altar with heads bowed to offer You utmost adoration and worship, trust and obedience, glory and honor, loyalty and diligence, and profound praise and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, I am directed to write about what the tabernacle in the wilderness means for us today. The symbolic connections are there for all of us to see. This is a different way to see the relationship between the old and new covenants, but one that will give us a deeper understanding of the pattern of God’s plan for each of us. Unlike the plans of the evil one, God’s plans are constructed out of His deep love for each of us. No matter how unimportant we may think our individual lives are, God values each of us as if we were His treasures. He has not only forgiven our past sins for eternity, but He has also forgotten them. When He looks at us, He sees us as He sees His own beloved Son. That kind of love is unavailable from any other source. We should bask in the warmth of it and use it as a motivation to keep our own covenant promises to Him. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn