Faithful
DECEMBER 31, 2022
Deuteronomy 4:27-28
And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Imagine a scenario in which one member of a marriage has eyes for someone else outside of the marriage. The faithful spouse perceives this and warns the one with the wandering eye to be careful and to stay away from the person they find so alluring. Unfortunately, the one refuses to heed the warning and continues flirting with this other person, falling more deeply into the seduction. Eventually, the faithful spouse has had enough and says to the unfaithful one, “Leave, and go be with the one you really love. But be prepared to deal with the consequences.” In a nutshell, that is what Moses warned would happen if Israel pursued the gods of the land.
In fact, he didn’t say “if” this happens but “when” this happens they would go into exile and serve “the works of men’s hands, gods of wood and stone.” If they were so enthralled by these “nothing gods,” they would end up serving them in the nations where they were venerated. If their hearts were bound to go after the gods of Babylon, then their bodies would end up in Babylon — in chains. It would seem that this fascination with pleasing the world has not stopped even now. Consider this: the United Nations has never been a friend to Israel, and yet, decade after decade, the nation of Israel seems ready to comply with most anything the UN wishes to hand down — all for the sake of being accepted by the nations.
Here is the reality for God’s people: if we are determined to seek out and embrace the values of the world, then eventually, we will be in servitude to the world. To gain acceptance by this world means we must be polluted by the world’s values. If that happens, we will end up acting like the world which, in turn, means that we will cease serving our purpose — being a light to the world. And so it is that God uses this scenario to teach His people a valuable lesson which is — it really isn’t so bad in our Father’s house. Even the servants have it good there.
So if He must, He’ll send us away to the embrace our other lovers and, consequently, allow us to lose everything. He’ll allow us to experience great suffering to the point that we are reduced to feeding pigs — but all in the hopes that we will come to our senses and return to Him. But here is the good news — it doesn’t have to be that way at all; instead, we can determine to be faithful to Him. In reality, anything in this world that would lead us astray has been, in some way, fashioned by the hands of men, meaning it is temporal and not eternal. In short, it is worthless. So let us be careful not to turn away from our Master and thus avoid the pitfalls of this world. Let us keep our eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith and be the one He calls “Faithful.”
Every Blessing Comes From the Hand of God
DECEMBER 30, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:25-26 When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly … and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger … you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess. The generation that first […]
Our God is a Jealous God
DECEMBER 29, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Yesterday, we addressed the fact that because we serve a jealous God, we mustn’t be tolerate of falsehoods and lies — that would be akin to turning to false gods. Following the example of Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego, we must always be prepared to […]
Let Us Reflect HIS Light
DECEMBER 25, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:19 Take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. Previously, we addressed the notion that heavenly […]
Let Us Not CONFORM But Be TRANSFORMED
DECEMBER 27, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. Moses reminded Israel that they are a people of “inheritance” which is to say that they are a people who are called to be distinct from […]
Our God is a Consuming Fire!
DECEMBER 28, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. By virtue of the fact that Moses was permitted to enter the land of Canaan, nor were his bones buried in the land as it was with Joseph, it is clear that the Almighty doesn’t play favorites nor does He compromise on His expectations […]
Do Not Allow “Egypt” to Infiltrate Your Life
DECEMBER 26, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. The nations of the world have always and continue to do what is right in their own eyes. With God’s people it is not to be […]
Preserving the Remnant
Joseph explained to his bewildered brothers that God had ordained his descent into Egypt in order to “preserve life” and “to preserve a remnant.” (Genesis 45:5). Joseph goes on to state that, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7).
When Joseph is understood as foreshadowing the work of Messiah, a similar statement may be made. Yeshua’s brothers the Jewish people rejected Him, but God ordained that rejection to accomplish a great deliverance.
Paul seems to have read Joseph’s story in this light as well. In Romans 11, he struggled with the difficult question of Israel’s rejection of Yeshua. Though he did not directly invoke Joseph as an analogy, he seems to have alluded to it in a few places in this discussion. For example, he pointed out that Israel’s rejection of Messiah has meant riches for the world. The brothers’ rejection of Joseph resulted in riches for the famine-stricken world of Joseph’s day. Similarly, Paul pointed out that Israel’s ultimate reconciliation with the Messiah will be “life from the dead.” Joseph said, “God sent me before you to preserve life (lemicheyah, למחיה).” Jewish liturgy typically uses the same Hebrew word for the resurrection of the dead.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Romans 11:15)
I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! (Romans 11:11-12)
Paul saw the Jewish estrangement from Messiah as a necessary part of a divinely ordained plan whereby God extended salvation to the entire world. In this regard, the Jewish estrangement from Messiah closely mirrors the events in Joseph’s story. Paul conceded that Israel has stumbled (though not fallen), but he insisted that even the nation’s stumbling plays a part of God’s plan. Just as Joseph and his brothers ultimately reunited and reconciled, Paul said that “all Israel will be saved.”
All Israel will be saved; just as it is written [in Isaiah 59:20-21], “The deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:26-27)
Paul did not suppose that all Israel must wait until the culmination of the age before entering into reconciliation with the Messiah. He maintained that, just as the LORD preserved a remnant of His people in the past, so too a remnant had recognized King Messiah. Again, the discussion seems to allude to the story of Joseph:
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. (Genesis 45:7)
In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. (Romans 11:5)
As the People of God…
DECEMBER 24, 2022 Deuteronomy 4:19 Take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. Yesterday we addressed the fact that, from […]