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Tag: deuteronomy

Looking Back – Nations in the eyes of the LORD

“So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. – 2 Chronicles 15:6 NKJV

History from an eternal perspective

We have begun this year of our Lord, 2018, in consideration of eternal time. Time beyond years and measurement shows a perspective of man peering beyond the beginning and ending of our mortal history.

The Lord’s voice resounds through those God chooses in both spoken and written words. Therefore books of the Bible also relate stories of the Lord given to mortal men.

We occasionally hear God speaking through Prophets of events which the Lord will cause in the future. They speak of Israel and of nations familiar and forgotten. True prophets warn of the consequences of men and nations opposing the will of Almighty God.

A few Prophets like Ezekiel, Daniel and John reveal events beyond the mortal timeline of all mankind, even to an apocalypse of the heavens and earth!

Christ Jesus boldly proclaimed not only what was, but the unseen of time before man, now, and forever more.

This Nation (U.S.) – Looking Back

Without looking back Americans might not acknowledge some divergent views of actual history of our 17th century founding. (500 years, so long past; yet passes so quickly)

Notice a Pennsylvania only east of the Alleghenies. You likely haven’t read how a George Washington surrender to the French may have led to the French and Indian War.

At the time of the U.S. Constitution, Colonial states claimed lands for future expansion. America has always been a land of immigrants.

We the people, while opposing fading European empires, conquered a new world from native nations. Then we the new world people defended it against immigrants from foreign lands of origins other than our own.

Spain, England, France and other empires expanded then diminished, even to the point of America coming to their aid in the great wars of the twentieth century.

Yet who remembers the fall (or even existence) of empires besides Rome?

A Lesson for the Nations from Israel

What does all of this have to do with the Bible, you may ask?

Deuteronomy 9:

“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven..

4 “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.

Israel would not only ignore the voice of the LORD though its Prophets, God’s own chosen people would ignore the Law given for their own holiness. A people of tradition has rejected its own traditions of the Lord their God.

And empires to follow, including Spain, Great Britain and now the United States of America, which sometimes make claims to new lands of milk and honey, reject the rule of the Righteous One.

The Lord God brings nations to renewed hope and crushes wickedness in the wilderness of the unknown.

History beyond claims of conquerors & contentions of analysts

We the people of the Lord really must hear more than quick sound-bytes of this hour. Godly men and women should seek more than a 60 second headline to the crowds.

Even now, a boisterous tyrant or reasonable king may proclaim in an instant his partism message of good or evil. Will the world look beyond the agendas of mortals to the written word of Almighty God? Rarely, only the faithful.

The Lord will lead a remnant of all the nations to eternal life. God has revealed His plan and chronicled events of the past for our understanding.

Moses did not write the Books of the Law as the events unfolded. The LORD revealed the Beginning, the generations of Noah & Joseph, a great leader of Egypt. God gave instructions to priests, elders and common men and women. In addition to prophesies of the failings of Israel and other nations, the Bible records events for the discovery of God’s will in later generations. Yet will you read God’s word and claim its cautions?

Looking Back

“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’…

This caution to a new conquering empire (Israel) might well serve as a lesson of history to many 21st century nations.

This series will continue with scripture written or chronicled as historic evidence of events for others to read later.

Stay tuned and read your Bible. It’s all there – history, that is; but we just give a headline glance to most of these pivotal events. For after all, it was a long time ago. What could that matter to a 21st century Christian?

To be continued..,

January 30, 2018
For you will always have the poor – 3

For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ – Deuteronomy 15:11

Certainly Jesus could have been referring to this command of Moses.

Thus far we have examined two of the three reports of Jesus telling us that the poor are always with us. (Our Lord means no disrespect.) Before moving on to His point in the anointing with oil and returning to the final quote, let’s take a brief Biblical look at the needy.

Psalms

9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

10:2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

14:6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is his refuge.

113:7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap

Proverbs

14:21 Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner,
but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity
than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

28:6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

Judge rightly between the words of Jesus and the integrity of the one who remarked that the extravagant anointing of Jesus kept help from the poor.

“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” tweet=”Luke 6:20

Luke 6:30-36

Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Who has the LORD chosen?

Has the Lord not chosen the poor, the humble and the least of those among men a His own servants?

“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” tweet=”But you have dishonored the poor man. James 2:5-6a

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. – Colossians 3:12-14

To be continued…

August 7, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 8
The Fig Tree Languishes

In this concluding part of our 8-part series we draw our conclusions of why JESUS on his way to Jerusalem cursed the fig tree.
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[circa 835 BC]
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The Prophet Joel:

1:3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation…

Generations recall what has been before.

Sin is always the downfall of the Lord’s chosen nation.

Surely scripture speaks contemporarily to those with ears to hear.

1:12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
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~A.D. 30
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Yesterday they shouted, ‘Hosanna!’

Eight centuries after Joel and other prophets warned Judah to repent, Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Even the children shouted praises and the crowds witness miracles.

Jesus then returned to nearby Bethany for the night.

A connection of Bethany to figs

Bethany was home to Lazarus, where some in the Jerusalem crowds had known that Jesus had raised him from the dead! Much is expected for this day.

Bethany “place of unripe fig tree near to Jerusalem

Bethany “house, place of unripe figs” is a village located on the E slope of Mt. Olivet, about one and one-half miles from Jerusalem.

It was called also the house of misery on account of its lonely situation and the invalids who congregated there.’ Source

Matthew 21:

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
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'It lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, fully a mile beyond the summit. Bethany has been commonly explained "house of dates," but it more probably signifies "house of misery." 
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19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:19

And the fig tree withered at once.

Once a withered fig, Jerusalem will wither once more

Israel and Judah had been destroyed.

Jerusalem’s walls and Temple are rebuilt after many years, first by Ezra then built back bigger and better by Herod the Great.

Rome, like other nations, has again captured a chosen people; sons of Abraham, sons of David.

A King rides up to the gates triumphantly and crowds praise Jesus.

Now the Lord returns to Jerusalem and curses a fig tree.

Do these jews praising Jesus know their scripture?

Of course they do.

“Nearly every 1st century jew knew the word of God better than most jews or christians in these last days with abundant access to unread Bibles.”

32:46 וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם לְכָל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מֵעִיד בָּכֶם הַיֹּום אֲשֶׁר תְּצַוֻּם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶם לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשֹׂות אֶת־כָּל־דִּבְרֵי הַתֹּורָה הַזֹּֽאת׃

and he said to them, “Place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 32:46

Deuteronomy 8:

6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills,

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”

Have we forgotten the lesson of the fig tree?
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Just in case you have missed the Prologue and Scripture bringing us to this conclusion: GO BACK to the PROLOGUE HERE
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Even as we have forgotten the Lord in our daily lives, Jesus the Messiah has found no fruit of repentance in Israel — in our nation

— perhaps rarely in our churches — and even in the landscapes and homes of this 21st century christian life.

The Lord found no desire of God’s chosen people to turn back to true worship of the Lord.

God our Father sent the Son to us in the flesh to become a Sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus neared the completion of His time with us on His created earth as Son of Man and then set his face toward Jerusalem and CURSED the fig tree.

‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
Deuteronomy 27:26

It was not the season for figs, but a time for sacrifice.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up – John 3:13

Matthew 21:

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

²¹And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
What season is your faith?

+ Do you worship the Lord?

+ Would a King entering your town recognize your fruit?
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Forgive me, Lord. Help me in my unbelief, for I have not asked you to take up the evil on this mountain of my mortal life and cast it into the sea.
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Jesus IS Lord. He will return to reign forever and ever.

Amen.
July 12, 2017