What amazing promises the Lord makes to His people
Israel! They must listen, keep, and do
the commandments. They hear the Word of
the Lord, they keep it by teaching it to all, always, and then they are to do
them, live by the precepts David extolled in the Psalms as making him wiser
than his fellows. Simple, huh? The promises are to prosper everything in
their lives by blessing it all and loving them.
Everything they have will multiply, they will have abundance and no
weapon formed against them will prosper.
They are not to pity their enemies nor are they to serve or worship
their gods. These things would become a
snare to them. I feel certain that, at
the time, they couldn't imagine ever doing that, but indeed that was what
happened. We have a covenant of life
with the Lord as well but the kingdom we are seeking to see multiplied and
prosper is His kingdom and not our own.
Jesus showed us the way of the new covenant.
Apparently the disciples of John who were following Jesus
were startled by His question, "What are you seeking?" The best answer they could come up with was,
"Teacher, where are you staying?"
Really, they were using Him as a travel agent? Jesus invited them to come and see. We have made that into a principle for
inviting people to church while He was inviting them not to see the place He
was staying but to spend time with Him. What
they were really seeking is apparent in Andrew's words to Peter, "We have found
the Messiah." These men were truly
seekers, they were looking for Messiah and when they heard John's words they
left him and went after the one He named as the Lamb of God. They were indeed seeking more than travel
advice, they were seeking a savior.
So if we don't have the promise of a land of our own and
prosperity like the Israelites were promised, what do we get? We get eternal life, we get the Spirit of God
residing in us, we get to promise of constant presence. Paul says that the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all people and that this grace trains us to live godly
lives. We have received so much from Him
and His call to us is to live according to His will. Not only does He tell us what that is, if we
live by the Spirit rather than the flesh, He enables us to do what He
wills. Are we seeking Him only as savior
and not as Lord? We need to be saved not
only from death, but Paul says we are also saved from lawlessness and are to be
zealous for good works. Sorry to say
that often we only allow Him to be our get out of jail free card and then we go
back to our own passions and desires.
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