Genesis 12:1-3 “The Lord said to Abram ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a GREAT NATION and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who will bless you and whoever curses you I will curse. And all people on earth will be blessed through you.’ “
Who spoke all those words? Who revealed His plans? Those words and plans were so totally reliable. Six times the Lord God repeated His ‘I WILL’. Never will it happen that, in one case or another, He will not do as He planned!
God’s plan included A LAND and A NATION. And both must originate with Abram. In turn we hear the cry from Abraham’s heart
Genesis 15:4,5 “You have not given me any children and now a servant in my household will be my heir. Then the word of the Lord came to him ‘this man will not be your heir! But a son coming from your body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.‘ Then He said to him ‘So shall your offspring be’ “.
No children, and . . . offspring in number like the stars of heaven? Incredible! But it was Abraham’s God Who did say so! That day, now ages ago, in a humanly impossible situation, God continued a plan that would carry through into ages which today are still future. While proceeding with His plan the Lord would show His power. He can make straight hits with bent sticks. In the face of all human impossibility, Abraham did get his son, by Sarah his own wife - Isaac. In turn Isaac gave Abraham a grandson - Jacob. For many years during his life Jacob would want to be self-dependant, rather than depending on God. Genesis 25 - 27 show him for who he really is. Nevertheless, God knew what to do with Jacob. These were His words to him:
Genesis 28:15 “I am with you and will watch over you where ever you go; and I will bring you back to this land; I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob named the place where God made those promises BETHEL, the gate of Heaven - the House of God. Nowhere else could Jacob have been safer. He might have stayed in the House of God, with all those precious promises in his pocket. And yet, the following morning he showed his own real and sinful character.
Genesis 28:17-21 “He was afraid and said ‘How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of Heaven’. Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying IF God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking, IF He will give me food to eat and clothing to wear, so that I return safely to my father’s house THEN the Lord will be my God’ “.
IF, if, THEN. Sadly Jacob showed how little he trusted the God of Bethel. What were God’s promises to him? (Genesis 28:10-15). After those remarks from Jacob’s heart, did the God of the Bible then reject him? He did not! He showed His patient grace all through Jacob’s life. Jacob shows us that there is a vast difference between knowing God and walking with God.
After Jacob had his little ceremony with the stone-pillar and the oil, he was on his way again. He travelled away from the House of God to a house without God. An ungodly environment!
After twenty years in that place Jacob discovered that his dearest wife was treasuring her dad’s ‘household gods’. From here on we need to allow the narrative of Genesis, chapters 28 – 31 to speak.
Genesis 32:1 “Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said ‘This is the camp of God ‘ “.
It was not difficult. He had seen them once before and immediately recognized them. The first time it was in ‘the house of God’. Appropriate, because God is always in His house and on His throne. But now the angels of God appear in ‘the camp of God’. Appropriate also, because God always travels with people He loves.
Genesis 32:3-5 “Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau. When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said ‘We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you and four-hundred men are with him ‘.
Jacob had a guilty conscience.
Genesis 32:7,8 “In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Jacob? Jacob! What about the angels in ‘the camp of God?’ You are full of fear and distress. That meeting with the angels, was that a stupid dream-affair only?
Genesis 32:9 “Then Jacob prayed . . . ”.
Jacob is very human. He is so like you and I. He first does what seems sensible and after that he begins to pray. Jacob reminds the Lord of His promises. Why? Did the Lord forget? No, He never does and never will. Jacob failed.
Genesis 32:13 “He spent the night there and from what he had he selected a gift for his brother Esau . ..”.
What a black night it was. Instead of restfully waiting in the light shining from the face of God, Jacob again took matters into his own hands.
It was a costly gift indeed. Typical Jacob, he divided his present into a number of separate parts and ordered his servants to make the presentation in stages, in order to impress and pacify Esau. Rather than quiet trust in the Lord, Jacob had more trust in Jacob. Hear his language when he speaks about ‘master’ Esau and ‘servant’ Jacob. Is that speech becoming, for a wealthy shareholder in the bank of Heaven?
Genesis 32:21 “So Jacob’s gifts went on, ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.”
It was one more night of desperation. He just could not be still.
Genesis 32:22 “That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maid-servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of Jabbok. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
Was Jacob alone? Not really! The God of His House, the God of His camp was the God of Jacob’s dark night. For Jacob this was not the time for prayer, not even a whispered or silent prayer. He must fight and fight hard. But soon it dawned on him who the stranger was. He was wrestling with God. And he still would not give up.
When his attacker said ‘Let me go’ Jacob was of a different mind. It was the mind of Jacob. He said ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me’, as if he could tell Almighty God what He should do. In one mighty move Jacob could have been destroyed. But instead God gave him a new name and twelve sons. They were Abraham’s grandsons. And so twelve tribes came into being. In due time, God’s time, these twelve tribes would be formed into God’s nation, ISRAEL. In spite of many, historic, horrific persecutions and present threats of annihilation that nation is still with us today and will exist into all eternity to come.
We will now spend some time following these twelve tribes as they develop into a nation. To do so we need to take some large steps through Old Testament history to find Jacob and his family in Egypt. Jacob’s family started in Egypt with a company of seventy souls (Genesis 46:27). The seventy greatly increased in number (Genesis 47:27), to an estimated two million, but still no resemblance of a nation. The then king of Egypt began to worry and decided to harass the people who were not real Egyptians. He was afraid that their large increase would make them dangerous to the Egyptian nation. He ordered all Hebrew male babies to be killed, and the Hebrews to be put to hard labour in the brick-pits of Egypt.
The Hebrews began to cry to the God of their forefathers. The God Who spoke to Abraham ‘I will’, ‘I will’. Years ago this God had shown Abraham what was going to happen to his descendants.
Genesis 15:12 - 16 “Then the Lord said to him ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.’ “
The four hundred years too were in God’s plan and on His calendar. So were the crying Hebrews in Egypt. At the right time God called and prepared His chosen man. Suddenly the sordid slaves in Egypt were going to have a God-given leader, Moses. God’s time had come. What do four hundred years mean to Him? They mean less than half of one of our days. Now He begins the furtherance of His plan for the ages of man. From the burning bush that did not burn, He called Moses.
Please, do not be misled by Christians who see fire as a blessing from God. In the Bible fire consistently portrays destructive Judgment. But the burning bush was not destroyed, Moses saw Judgment giving way to Grace.
Exodus 3:4-6 “ . . . ‘Moses, Moses’, and Moses said ‘Here I am’. ‘Do not come any closer’ God said, ‘take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground’. Then He said ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’ .At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
Moses? A sinful man, but on Holy ground? Yes, sinful Moses on Holy ground! How could that be? It could be because the Most Holy God is the most gracious and forgiving God.
The words God now speaks should move us all to heartfelt worship. This God, Who in holy, righteous anger destroyed a world of sinful humanity by the flood, is the God Who graciously saved Noah and his family. And now He is speaking about a crew of sordid slaves who are being forced and driven by taskmasters. In sweat and mud they bend their backs to their task in the brick-pits of Egypt. Listen now to the words of God, Most Holy and Almighty. His Majesty is surrounded by millions of angels who all do His bidding. This God is saying:
Genesis 3:7 “I have indeed seen the misery of MY people in Egypt, I have heard them crying out because of their slave-drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians.”
The God who spoke those words on that day is our God this day. He still is and always will be perfectly in control of the fulfilment of His plan.
Psalm 2:2-4 “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and His anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’
‘The One enthroned in Heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.’
Let us now continue on from that point in time when Pharaoh’s slaves emerged on their way to become the nation which God had promised Abraham.
Exodus 6:1 “Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh; because of My mighty hand he will let them go; because of My mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.’ “
Five hundred years after using Abraham, God now uses Moses in the execution of His promise and plan. Pharaoh never heard those promises ‘I will, I will’. He maintained his stubborn ‘I will not!’
God dealt very severely with Pharaoh and his nation. God was in the process of forming a nation out of the descendants of Abraham. Although chosen and formed by God, a nation still never reconciled to Him, or ‘born again’ as by John the evangelist (John 3:16,17). Until this day the nation of Israel has still not become regenerate.
During the third month of their journey to their promised land the twelve tribes had a moving experience with God.
Exodus, chapters 19 and 20, “And God spoke all these words . . .
And with ‘all these words’ God clearly told them exactly what He would expect from them in their relationship with Him and with one another. ‘All these words’ were only the beginning of His laws for them. Israel, never seeing her need of merciful grace, Israel must live by demanding laws; must do this and must not do that. The God Who was forging a nation for Himself would be demanding and . . . gracious, severe and . . . forgiving. His laws drove His nation to the need of blood sacrifices and in them Israel could find peace with her God. Blood sacrifices because no sinful human heart can possibly obey all the lawful requirements of a most holy God. There would be many rules still to come and to be obeyed, all of the rules to show how a sinful nation cannot please a most Holy God and how much they would be in need of His loving grace.
When Moses read to Israel from the Book of the Covenant they were full of confidence and answered ‘We will obey’ (Exodus 4:27). They inherited that characteristic from father Jacob. Never did they realize that the divine finger wrote their death warrant in stone, and until this day, they have never understood that self-confidence can never help them to obey ‘all the Lord has said’. In all of history there has been only one Jew, one Man, Who did everything according to the will of God. His Name is Jesus Christ. We know that Israel became grossly disobedient to God. In the end, and for the time being, God dispersed them from their land. It had become impossible for the world of nations to see Israel as the nation belonging to God. It had been God’s desire to have Israel as His showpiece in the world, but while Israel failed miserably, God will never fail.
The nations evolving from Noah’s sons never received the laws of God. Moses did not send any missionaries back into Egypt to teach those laws. Nor did he send any ahead to their promised land to preach those laws. The Bible is very clear and outspoken about this.
Psalm 147:19,20 “He has revealed His Word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel.
He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws Praise the Lord!”
The first verse states the fact. The second underscores it.
Exodus 19:3-6 “Then Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said ‘this is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel -
You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle-wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep My covenant then out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation -. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
We know what has happened. Israel would not listen and often acted out her own unworthiness. However, the Lord always was and will be faithful to His covenant. In it He promised Abraham
Genesis 17:7,8 “I will establish MY covenant as an everlasting covenant between you and Me and your descendants after you, for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be their God.”
In history there have been people, maybe there still are, who claimed, or are claiming that God’s ‘everlasting‘ has come to an end. Others have dared to claim that Israel has been taken out of His grip or that the nation was wiped away from before His face. Tens of thousands of Christians have been deceived and become confused, when they were told that now the Church is the new and spiritual Israel.
We need to emphasize it by repetition: Israel, in herself, as a nation, has never been holy before her God. Before God will lead her into that glory, Israel will have to pass through His bitter judgment. Some are claiming that God will destroy this world in total obliteration. But His promises to Abraham and his descendants make that claim positively impossible. The Bible shows it to be nonsensical. Let us listen now to Ezekiel, a servant of the king of Israel. He speaks to no other nation but to one . . . Israel.
Ezekiel 20:33-38 “As sure as I live, declares the sovereign Lord I will rule over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath!
I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath!
I will bring you in the desert of the nations, and there, face to face, I will execute judgment on you. As I judged your fathers in the desert, in the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will take note of you as you pass under My rod, and I will bring you into the bond of covenant. I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against Me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living, yet they will not enter the land of Israel! Then you will know that I am the Lord!”
From her God Israel may still expect ‘outpoured wrath’ and . . . ‘outpoured grace.’ The fury of God Most Holy, it will burst loose on His sinful people. He has never rejected Israel and He never will. God never rejected Jacob, not in all his self-dependence. But more than ever before, today Israel is still displaying all the characteristics of ancient father Jacob. To a degree religious but still self-dependant; certainly not depending on the God of Israel.
At Mount Sinai God instructed Moses to tell His people ‘Although the whole world is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
When Moses read to them from the Book of the Covenant, proudly they answered ‘We will obey’ (Genesis 24:7). But in their grave disobedience Israel finally not only grossly disobeyed her God but also crucified His dear, one and only Son, for Him to become the Savior, not only for a large number of Jews, but also for the whole world. Once again Ezekiel was called to be a spokesman for God:
Ezekiel 22:17-22 “Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are copper, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but dross of silver,’ therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have all become dross I will gather you into Jerusalem. As men gather silver, iron, lead and tin into a furnace, to melt it with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you. I will gather you and will blow on you with My fiery wrath and you will be melted inside her. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My wrath upon you. ‘ “
In His fierce and holy anger God will seek satisfaction for all the wicked insults His nation Israel has heaped upon His Holy Name. The Person and work of their Messiah on the cross guarantees their eternal salvation but Israel must experience the Day of the Lord. That will be a day of sore suffering, but it will not end in defeat and shame. It must end in glory and victory. Glory for His great Name, because He is God, glory in the cleansing and rich restoration of His nation, Israel.
The everlasting God is the God of glory. To Him belongs all the power in Heaven and on earth. He is able to carry out His plan for eternity and also for our ‘here and now’. Amongst all the other nations on the NEW earth, the home of righteousness, Israel will be His nation. Let me close this chapter with a quotation from Jeremiah. He wrote several truths, but this one is exceptionally clear.
Jeremiah 31:33-37 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord: ‘I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God! And they will be My people! No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive them their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. This is what the Lord says, He Who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night. Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord Almighty is His Name. Only if these decrees vanish from My sight declares the Lord, will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.”
Only . . .if ! Only . . . .then !
For a moment now let us see the reason why God chose Israel. It was because the restored nation will have a ‘new Jerusalem’, on the ‘new’ and eternal earth. Israel will never cease to be a nation before God (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). In our next chapter we will see one of the real reasons why Israel is so very guilty before God and then, later, a little more about the reconciliation Jeremiah wrote about.
No comments:
Post a Comment