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  • Reflections: Israel – a people

    Reflections: Israel – a people

    Genesis 32: “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

    28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

    When you hear ‘Israel,’ think ‘Jacob.’

    When you read Jacob after Genesis 32, remember GOD has renamed him Israel. When you read of the sons of Jacob, recall appropriately that we refer to the generations of the man Israel, born to one of his wives. (We won’t get into all that here.)

    Jacob’s Children 

    [partial list]

    • Genesis 29:32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben

    Genesis 29:35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

    • Genesis 30:5  And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
    • Genesis 30:10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
    • Genesis 30:17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
    • Genesis 30:21 Afterward she [Leah] bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
    • 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

    God made a covenant with Abram and renamed him Abraham. God saved Isaac, son of Abraham from the human sacrifice of blood on the altar of faith. God provided the substitute offering to be slain on the mountain of God. The LORD chose Abraham from among all tribes. The LORD chose Isaac, son of Sarah, over Ishmael, son of Hagar. And the LORD chose Jacob over his twin brother Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah. The LORD renamed Jacob, Israel.

    The LORD chose Joseph, son of Israel and Rachel, to save God’s chosen people along with saving the people of Egypt (of Hagar) and many other peoples. The LORD chose Joseph over Reuben or even Judah, oldest sons of Israel; sons of Israel’s first bride, yet sons of Leah, bride given to Jacob by deceit of Laban, father of Leah and Rachel. Along with their servants, it was the LORD’s will to make Israel father of many nations in a place contested until the end of days.

    Whether Judah, Benjamin or sons of Joseph, remember Israel is a people more than a place: chosen sons and daughters of the LORD.

    We have already explored the rebellion of the Hebrew people even as Moses led them by the Hand of the Almighty from the slavery of Egypt. We have already witnessed their covenant to obey God’s Law: the Ten Commandments.

    We have heard a later warning of Elijah to divided nations of Israel and Judah of the consequence of disobedience to the LORD their God.

    What happened to God’s chosen Kings? What happened to God’s chosen Nation? Why did Israel become divided? Why did their Kings suffer defeat?

    Why did they not follow the Law and obey God? (For that matter: are we, sons and daughters of adoption, saints of Christ’s church, so much better in these last days?)

    What happens when the LORD chooses His family and we become prodigal sons?

    To be continued…

  • Running from God – 5 – God pursues

    Running from God – 5 – God pursues

    Are you running from God?

    Here we have Elijah sulking in victory and awaiting defeat under the shade of a broom tree.

    We have heard the same Peter who would glorify Jesus and Moses and Elijah with a shrine, deny knowing Jesus when he risked imprisonment or execution for his confession of Christ.

    We have even seen Moses, God’s hand-picked leader of Israel to lead them to the Promised Land, weary of the weight of leadership.

    Yet God pursues victory beyond the focus of our vision and glory higher than the imagination of our defeat.

    1 Kings 19

    The Lord Speaks to Elijah

    9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him,

    “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

    10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

    11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.”

    And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord,

    but the Lord was not in the wind.

    And after the wind an earthquake,

    but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

    12 And after the earthquake a fire,

    but the Lord was not in the fire.

    And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

    13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said,

    “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

    14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

    15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

    WAIT a minute! Elijah, Prophet of Israel who God has used to prove His Almighty Power over the false prophets and worshipers of Tyre and Sidon and places beyond Syria; Elijah, Prophet of Israel, who had thought his battle against Ahab and Jezebel was over (and that they would kill him); GOD commands Elijah to anoint a man Hazael as King of Syria!

    Syria! NOT Israel, NOT Judah. Almighty GOD is anointing a King of Syria; as before Moses, God had anointed a Prince of Egypt named Joseph.

    GOD is strategic beyond the best planning and foresight of man. As with Moses being succeeded by Joshua, God also appoints a powerful successor to the Prophet Elijah. And God also commands the defeated Elijah under the broom tree waiting to die to anoint the next King of Israel to replace his pursuer Ahab. (The fate of Jezebel she has prophesied on herself.)

    [Previously, in 1 Kings 19:2 – “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” ] Of course Jezebel’s gods are nothing more than stone and wood.

    GOD continues Elijah’s orders:

    16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

    Elisha later witnesses the Prophet Elijah taken up into heaven! Seven centuries later Peter, James and John would witness Elijah standing with Moses and Jesus talking about that which is to come.

    And when Peter later denied knowing Jesus, God pursued him. Peter was witness to Jesus after the resurrection.

    NO broom tree to sit under or cave in which to hide – Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus: God pursued Peter.

    And providentially enough, not so much later, Jesus appeared alive once more to another Jew, an Apostle to the Gentiles. And where was it where GOD, in the risen Christ Jesus, pursued Saul, persecutor of Christians?

    GOD met Saul on the road to Damascus, Syria!

    Paul is witness to the risen Christ Jesus! A man from Tarsus (in Turkey) testifies JESUS IS LORD!

    GOD is not ONLY the God of the Jews; GOD is the ONE GOD, over all who believe in Christ Jesus our Lord; any who will listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and return to the way of God’s will.

    Not my will, but thy will be done. – Luke 22:42

    Let us prepare for the return of Christ Jesus our Lord upon the clouds in victory.

    Amen.

     

  • The Scandal of a Virgin

    The Scandal of a Virgin

    Everything seemed to be in chaos; no real leadership to speak of in households in my country or surrounding countries. Armies of men, young men and even boys terrorizing our lives, then running away. Soldiers, they call themselves; robbing homes, taking what they please and offering it back to helpless widows.

    The men flee and fear radical zealot followers of traditionalist religious men. The powerful army of an enemy has occupied once more in a place where no one will be led – a place where men and women will only do what is right in their own eyes.

    Life seems hopeless for us. What little semblance of order we once had in our families is now broken by the futility of war and the occupiers of peace.

    Is this scenario from which we are constantly distracted so unfamiliar?

    When judea mapRome occupied Syria and Palestine  and there was no longer an Israel (recall from your history), the traditional local leaders had failed in leading a rebellious people that will not be led – a history much repeated over the centuries.

    War and conflict: familiar and frequent in these lands of the Bible ripe for the picking of wealthy nations, open to opportunists conquering the wealth of weak peoples.

    Life has little value to those who fight for an army of conquerors. They have no home any more; these soldiers and those who flee from them.

    Family: husbands and wives, boys and girls – these are of little importance to those who wage war, men who desire riches and glory for themselves.

    Is anything new under the sun? Yet this is not God’s intention for God’s family.

    Deuteronomy 12:8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters…

     —

    As we prepare to celebrate a ‘Christmas’ season in the year of our Lord, 2014; rich Americans, prosperous Europeans, several wealthy Arabs, select Asians, a few Africans and some South Americans are much distracted by our addictive daily entertainment and games. It was no different in the games of Rome years before the Roman Empire fell, miles away from Palestine and the birth we mark in Bethlehem.

    Christmas is now a time of self-indulgent shopping and entertainments of blockbuster movies. A box-office hit might well suggest movie-scene destruction of a country the size of Argentina or Poland. How like a video game must all the violence seem to these boy warriors.

    Who would even bat an eyelash at so many deaths in a war-like scene where men of war are determined to wipe out their enemies; where young boys will break up communities and families and men who lead armies will cause them to take their crusade of higher cause to unfamiliar lands, wreaking havoc and devastation in the most evil ways upon the innocent?

    It would not seem unusual in this time of surreal, video game-like violence for a man like me, who drives through a city like Allentown PA US, to go to work to discover that in just one day some violent, evil force had destroyed every living being the entire city (or in a year the deaths of the entire population of Poland). This is the deception of our industrious entertainment empires.

    This unimaginable violence, both real and portrayed, whether in the dramas of the Roman Colosseum or the movies of Hollywood, trivializes the value of every human life intended for a place on this earth by God; a place in a marriage by God; a place in a family of God; a place in a community of God in a place where war is no more. We are a world corrupted by sin and peoples led by evil men.

    —

    iraqis refugeesAbout 850,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have fled the conflict in central Iraq to seek safety further north in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). They are scattered across the KRI in a variety of temporary housing situations: though a small number of them are in camps, most live informally in local schools, unfinished buildings, and public parks. Half a million of them are in the city of Dohuk alone. The great majority of these 850,000 internally displaced are members of religious minorities – Christians from the Ninewa Plains and Yazidis from the Sinjar area, in particular.
    As humanitarian agencies scramble to meet their needs, there must be a plan for longer-term support that reflects the increasingly complex and unpredictable environment in the country as a whole: an environment that is likely to result in more displacement.

    Syrian-refugees-setting-up-camp-receiveing-aid-in-IraqThese 850,000 refugees are in addition to the 640,000+ registered refugees from Syria in Jordan, not to mention the hundreds of thousands who have fled war in many parts of Africa and the Middle East; more than a million refugees from Ukraine and other countries.

    ‘What does all this have to do with a virgin?’ you ask.

    An introduction to our ‘cover girl’

    West_Bank_&_Gaza_Map_2007_(Settlements)

    The young girl featured above the title of this post lives in the troubled land of Israel of today. She is part of a group of young Jewish girls born in the troubled settlements of the West Bank.

    Tzuriya, a recent graduate of Ma’ale Levona, is doing her National Service as a guide at a Jordan Valley farm for kids with drug and alcohol problems.

    Two thousand, fourteen years ago, she would not be unlike a young Galilean girl named Mary, betrothed to a man a little bit older than her named Joseph. In those days young girls adhered to strict Biblical standards for young women prior to their betrothal to their future husband.

    They were called virgins. Their virginity was expected and guaranteed by their fathers as virgins were given to a husband as his bride and wife. A young woman’s life could be forfeited if she became pregnant. No honorable young man would consider having intercourse with just any young virgin (girl) and fathers protected their daughters with all power and authority until they were married. The family and pureness were held to the highest standards by all Hebrews.

    Babies were protected by mothers and fathers; all women, children and elderly preserved and protected by brothers and by close-knit biological families of the husband and his wife.

    Do you recall my reference above to an unimaginable violence of a movie scene that destroyed a city like Allentown PA US in just one day (and then another one, say, Hartford Connecticut, tomorrow)? That is the scope of the violence now being done to unborn babies executed by abortions each day of every year!

    The global holocaust of deaths of babies by abortion destroys the equivalent population of Argentina or Poland each and every year!

    The threats of the duplicitous government of Herod were small by comparison to what we matter-of-factly call ‘planned‘ in destroying the lives of babies for the indiscretions of their mothers. As a matter of fact, Mary and Joseph (you may remember) did have to flee Herod and the political troubles of the day for their baby Jesus to grow up in Egypt for a time (until it was safe for these refugees to return to Galilee (after their eventful visit to Bethlehem).

    Yes, the problem of refugees and violence against babies and families is not new and was familiar even to Jesus.

    Matthew 1 ESV [notes]

     The Birth of Jesus Christ

    18 Now the birth of the Christ [the Messiah] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed [That is, legally pledged to be married] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

    19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

    21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

    23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel”
    (which means, God with us).

    24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

    —

    A Light in the darkness

    Christians make much of the pageantry of the Christmas story and the child-like delight to which our Lord calls us as we hopefully hear the annual re-telling of the birth of Christ Jesus.

    The Gospel of Luke recounts the events in even more detail than our account from Matthew (above); however the Gospel of John tells us why a young virgin girl giving birth in Bethlehem of Judea remains the most scandalous birth of all time – the virgin birth of the most controversial son of man ever born, Christ Jesus, Immanuel, God With Us, Redeemer of the Jews, Hope of the Nations, Sacrifice for our sins, Judge of all men; Perfect and Holy example of what it means to be made in the Image of God.

    Jesus was a sinless man, sacrificed for your sins and for mine. No other man (or woman) born of a woman can claim Christ’s sinlessness.

    John 1

    4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…

    9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

    12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

    14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

    —

    The same Jews who believed John the Baptist to be a Prophet, rejected Jesus for political and traditional religious expediency. Only a remnant of the Jews accepted Jesus as the Messiah. [v.11] Christ Jesus adopted the people of the Nations (gentiles) who believe in Him. He gave those who believe the right of being part of the family of God. [v.12]

    It is not the land that is important; it is the God of the land.

    Jesus even praised some Romans and commended hated Samaritans (formerly part of the Israel of David) for their faith.

    Jesus chastened the rich to be generous and the ‘religious’ to be faithful, compassionate and loving.

    Love one another. Love your neighbor and pray for those who persecute you.

    Jesus performed many miracles, fulfilled many scriptures, taught scripture (the Bible) with authority, lived and died righteously, and most importantly of all – rose from the dead (witnessed by over five hundred men and several women). Yet most Jews do not accept Jesus as the Christ to this day.

    Did the Prophets not condemn the hardness of their hearts? Have the hearts of some christians not now become just as rebellious to the commands of Christ Jesus? Just read what the Prophets had to say about the darkness and disobedience of the time before Jesus Immanuel came into the world.

    Is it not the same darkness which now permeates the border-less regions of the nations and secret places in the hard hearts of mankind in these last days before our Lord’s triumphal return on the clouds?

    The Apostle John speaks well of the overflowing love of God, the love of Christ Jesus and the necessity of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men.

    IF we expect to inherit eternal life and the eternal Kingdom of God and His only Son, Christ Jesus, then we must repent of our sin and follow Jesus as our Lord. The Good News of Christmas is that you are invited to do this. You need not live in Israel or be of Hebrew descent.

    John also cautions that many will not accept Jesus, the light of life; and John tells us why many (including some who would claim to be ‘christians’) will not follow Jesus as Lord. The words following near to the well-pronounced John 3:16 remain a relevant caution to all in these last days.

    John 3:

    19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world,

    and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

    20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

    Jesus confronted Pharisees of the Jews as whitewashed tombs. They are dead in their religion and dead in their life – dead in their witness of the love of God and dead to eternal life. Jesus acknowledged that accepting His righteousness – accepting God, worshiping God as Lord of your life and not merely doing what is right in your own eyes is controversial; even more controversial than the scandal of a virgin giving birth.

    Ask a Jew who rejects Jesus; ask a Muslim who rejects most of what Jesus taught (as just one more prophet before Muhammad); ask a Hindu or Buddhist, who believe in many gods; ask a post-modern agnostic or atheist, who speak of peace yet believe only the science of the provable:

    Did Jesus come into the world to bring peace? Is Jesus God Incarnate; God With Us? Does Christ Jesus still live, resurrected in the body (as the Gospels witness)?

    Matthew records Jesus’ own comment about ‘peace’ on earth.

    Matthew 10:

    18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved…

    Not Peace, but a Sword

    34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

    36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

    37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

    —

    Is it not true? Is it not scandalous that a virgin should give birth to God Incarnate?

    Is it not true, that God is NOT one (in a definable sense), but infinitely unknowable by a being – a human being – of His creation; rather, the LORD GOD is a trinity – Father: Abba Father, a loving Father, as Christ Jesus taught, a Father overflowing with love for those who love Him; Son: Christ Jesus, the Messiah, Sacrifice for our sins, Redeemer of our eternal life in Him, example in the Person of God’s love and teacher of God’s very Word, the same ‘Word’ which spoke all being into existence [John 1:1]; and Holy Spirit: The same Person of the Holy Spirit which descended on Jesus and His Baptism (not a bird), the same Person of the Holy Spirit that descended on the Apostles (no more a fire than the burning bush, but something more of the Holiness of God), and the same Person of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost, hagios pneuma) which gave the Son to Mary.

    Matthew 1:20 …for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

    Scandalous!

    —

    Love and follow Jesus Christ as your Lord. Build a personal relationship with the Son of God, that you may be known in His eternal Kingdom.

    My Christmas messages to follow in this year of our Lord, 2014,  are not a traditional rendering of the Christmas story, a message of ‘peace on earth, good will to men.’

    It is not a message of peace for those who will not receive the peace and love of Christ Jesus, God Immanuel, the Person of Christ returning in victory.

    It is not truly the Gospel, the Good News that IF you accept Jesus as your Lord and follow Him, as I pray you will; that in Christ Jesus you will have an inner peace in addition to eternal life. It is not the message of love to which I pray my Muslim, Jewish, and unbelieving friends will come as they humbly accept that no works or laws can earn our right to eternal life with God.

    Rather, my Christmas messages to follow are a plea to the church; a trumpet call to marginal ‘christians’ to do what Jesus would have us do, to say what Jesus would have us say, and as best we can to live as Jesus would have us live. Christians must love one another as God has loved us in the Person of Jesus Christ – the Christ of ‘Christ-Mass’ – coming to us; for our LORD has commanded that His love be evident in us as we live in the world, while we are no longer part of the condemned.

    Are we not here to do something about a world of devastating darkness, hearts of uncaring coldness; lives lived without love, souls surviving with no hope, no faith and no love?

    Is it not scandalous that even God is not loved by those whom He created – those whom He knew even before we were in our mother’s womb, souls who the Word of God spoke into existence in the beginning and will judge in the end?

    Can you think of any lasting scandal more divisive (even now) than the birth of Christ Jesus to a virgin in Bethlehem?

    If you do not believe it, I challenge you to share the love of Christ and witness the Name of Jesus.

    Those who love the darkness will hear nothing of our sin; they will scandalize and reject the Name of Jesus, this Christmas and until the Judgment.