The Holy One calls to me this morning. Deep thoughts have brought me to deep questions about the instability in the Middle east. Knowing a little about Biblical history, I understand the nature of the conflict and how what happened long ago set the stage for the great battle that is, according to Biblical prophecy, going to take place in the future and in the Middle East.
The issue of Divine election is part of the swirling mystery of Holiness that I wonder about. The Holy One speaks just one word into my thoughts: "Pride".
This is going to be one of those days and counsel sessions where I need to get ready to go deep. Not deep as in intellectual knowledge but deep as to the things that are still attached to my flesh and need to be removed. What does my pride have to do with the Middle East? Or what does the Middle East have to do with my pride?
I need to go back to the Word and the historic account of the man and the woman and the maidservant where it all began. Of course the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar is well known in the Christian Community. We know about the promise God made to Abraham and we know how Sarah buckled in faith and gave her maidservant, Hagar to Abraham for the purpose of producing an heir to the promise. We know how a son was born through Hagar and his name was Ishmael. We know that thereafter Sarah conceived and gave birth to the child of promise: Isaac
We can read up and know that the slave woman and her son were sent away and into the wilderness. We can read how God reckoned Israel through Isaac as the genealogical descendants of Abraham to receive the blessing and pass it on to the world.
Scripture tells us in Gen 21 that contention grew within the family and finally Sarah said to Abraham "get rid of the slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."
Even as the matter greatly distress Abraham, God said to him, "do not be so distress about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also because he is your offspring". The scripture goes on to say in Gen 21:20 "God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer"
The reality that God spared Ishmael causes my mental gears to stop dead in their tracks and ponder that under talked about part of the account.
The Sovereignty of God is absolute and even if I question His ways at times, I accept that His word is His will. In this situation that exists in the Middle East in our days, I seek to understand His will. The Holy One has taken me to this part of the story to see that God was with this "other" son of Abraham. If God did not have a higher, greater purpose, for the life and lineage of Ishmael, the boy would have perished in the wilderness along with his mother Hagar.
The history of the nation of Israel and my history as a Christan and follower of Christ is the same in that I was "chosen". Jesus says, "You did not chose me but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. This is my command: love each other". John 15:16-17
I begin to see the relationship that pride has to the conflict in the Middle east as well as to my life as a Christian. We can take no credit for God's Divine election. We can only rejoice in the plan of Holiness that gives us a part to play in His purposes that govern our lives.
When Christ came to earth, He left all His Divine privilege behind. He came and humbled Himself even as He suffered and died on the Cross, He modelled the will of the Father against all pride. Philippians 2:5 exhorts us, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a Cross".
Our Lord came and died the death for all humanity. God is not content that any should perish but that all should come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus the Savior of the world.
Pride is the infection that kills the soul. Pride exalts self and creates the jealousies that lead to wars. The issue of Divine election rests with God alone, but my reaction to my own God ordained election must never be pride but rather thanksgiving. God saved Ishmael I believe with the same loving compassion that He saved me.
Knowing Israel as the "chosen" exposes the potential pride in all of us, We can get proud about being the "chosen" or recoil in jealousy if that place of privilege falls to someone else. It can affect all of us from the two biological natural descendants of Abraham to the spiritual descendants of Abraham AKA the church. The fact that God knows the heart does not change our free will to harden it.
Jesus came to show us the love of the Father who is not content that any of His beloved humanity should perish, not Ishmael, not you, not me. There is a war in the natural that traces back to the two sons of Abraham. Jesus came to heal all the rifts we have with each other and calls all of us to find our place in the Father's house. Only through Him can Jew and Gentile be reconciled with the Creator God and each other.
Jesus Christ also came to bring and then become a sword that will divide families and even nations. "I did not come to bring peace but a sword". What more poignant way for our all powerful King to be seen for Who He is than to enter into the world of human failure and chaos and bring Peace? The Middle East is a cauldron of ancient national and tribal conflicts that are beyond successful negotiations or peaceful co-habitation on a natural level.
The issue of the pride or jealousy over the "chosen" ceases to be an issue if we understand that salvation boils down to a decision and not a birthright. Divine election is in the fact that the gospel will be given to all flesh and left to each of us to decide to believe it. From that point on, the choice and decision is individual as we are all equally "chosen" to hear and have the ability to make it.
If God sees the end from the beginning regarding the history of man and does not have a purpose beyond what we know, He would have allowed Ishmael to die in that wilderness and spared all the world of the conflict we now have in the Middle East.
If this world is all there is to the Creation story, then there is reason for great sorrow and fear. However if the Lord is preparing humanity for a more extravagant future with Him then it is an imperative that we all enter into a deep and abiding relationship here before we pass into the eternal realm. Trials of various depths and degrees encourage us to look past our momentary struggles to find Him in the midst.
At the moment it seems all eyes are on the Middle East. Given what I know about prophecy, I know the Lord our God is there. Praying for His Beloved Israel is only half the reason the Lord calls us to intercede.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has Sovereign purpose beyond what we know or can imagine. The drama in the Middle East somehow serves that purpose. Do we pray for peace? Absolutely. But we must also trust that God, not flawed humans, is the One in ultimate control.
This is no time for Spiritual pride or arrogance in being among the chosen. I see the point He is making to me and confess the pride that can hinder my prayers for the lost, even and especially those in the Middle East. While I can read and know what prophecy foretells, God's Divine purpose is the point beyond the prophecy.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The issue of Divine election is part of the swirling mystery of Holiness that I wonder about. The Holy One speaks just one word into my thoughts: "Pride".
This is going to be one of those days and counsel sessions where I need to get ready to go deep. Not deep as in intellectual knowledge but deep as to the things that are still attached to my flesh and need to be removed. What does my pride have to do with the Middle East? Or what does the Middle East have to do with my pride?
I need to go back to the Word and the historic account of the man and the woman and the maidservant where it all began. Of course the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar is well known in the Christian Community. We know about the promise God made to Abraham and we know how Sarah buckled in faith and gave her maidservant, Hagar to Abraham for the purpose of producing an heir to the promise. We know how a son was born through Hagar and his name was Ishmael. We know that thereafter Sarah conceived and gave birth to the child of promise: Isaac
We can read up and know that the slave woman and her son were sent away and into the wilderness. We can read how God reckoned Israel through Isaac as the genealogical descendants of Abraham to receive the blessing and pass it on to the world.
Scripture tells us in Gen 21 that contention grew within the family and finally Sarah said to Abraham "get rid of the slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."
Even as the matter greatly distress Abraham, God said to him, "do not be so distress about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also because he is your offspring". The scripture goes on to say in Gen 21:20 "God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer"
The reality that God spared Ishmael causes my mental gears to stop dead in their tracks and ponder that under talked about part of the account.
The Sovereignty of God is absolute and even if I question His ways at times, I accept that His word is His will. In this situation that exists in the Middle East in our days, I seek to understand His will. The Holy One has taken me to this part of the story to see that God was with this "other" son of Abraham. If God did not have a higher, greater purpose, for the life and lineage of Ishmael, the boy would have perished in the wilderness along with his mother Hagar.
The history of the nation of Israel and my history as a Christan and follower of Christ is the same in that I was "chosen". Jesus says, "You did not chose me but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. This is my command: love each other". John 15:16-17
I begin to see the relationship that pride has to the conflict in the Middle east as well as to my life as a Christian. We can take no credit for God's Divine election. We can only rejoice in the plan of Holiness that gives us a part to play in His purposes that govern our lives.
When Christ came to earth, He left all His Divine privilege behind. He came and humbled Himself even as He suffered and died on the Cross, He modelled the will of the Father against all pride. Philippians 2:5 exhorts us, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a Cross".
Our Lord came and died the death for all humanity. God is not content that any should perish but that all should come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus the Savior of the world.
Pride is the infection that kills the soul. Pride exalts self and creates the jealousies that lead to wars. The issue of Divine election rests with God alone, but my reaction to my own God ordained election must never be pride but rather thanksgiving. God saved Ishmael I believe with the same loving compassion that He saved me.
Knowing Israel as the "chosen" exposes the potential pride in all of us, We can get proud about being the "chosen" or recoil in jealousy if that place of privilege falls to someone else. It can affect all of us from the two biological natural descendants of Abraham to the spiritual descendants of Abraham AKA the church. The fact that God knows the heart does not change our free will to harden it.
Jesus came to show us the love of the Father who is not content that any of His beloved humanity should perish, not Ishmael, not you, not me. There is a war in the natural that traces back to the two sons of Abraham. Jesus came to heal all the rifts we have with each other and calls all of us to find our place in the Father's house. Only through Him can Jew and Gentile be reconciled with the Creator God and each other.
Jesus Christ also came to bring and then become a sword that will divide families and even nations. "I did not come to bring peace but a sword". What more poignant way for our all powerful King to be seen for Who He is than to enter into the world of human failure and chaos and bring Peace? The Middle East is a cauldron of ancient national and tribal conflicts that are beyond successful negotiations or peaceful co-habitation on a natural level.
The issue of the pride or jealousy over the "chosen" ceases to be an issue if we understand that salvation boils down to a decision and not a birthright. Divine election is in the fact that the gospel will be given to all flesh and left to each of us to decide to believe it. From that point on, the choice and decision is individual as we are all equally "chosen" to hear and have the ability to make it.
If God sees the end from the beginning regarding the history of man and does not have a purpose beyond what we know, He would have allowed Ishmael to die in that wilderness and spared all the world of the conflict we now have in the Middle East.
If this world is all there is to the Creation story, then there is reason for great sorrow and fear. However if the Lord is preparing humanity for a more extravagant future with Him then it is an imperative that we all enter into a deep and abiding relationship here before we pass into the eternal realm. Trials of various depths and degrees encourage us to look past our momentary struggles to find Him in the midst.
At the moment it seems all eyes are on the Middle East. Given what I know about prophecy, I know the Lord our God is there. Praying for His Beloved Israel is only half the reason the Lord calls us to intercede.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has Sovereign purpose beyond what we know or can imagine. The drama in the Middle East somehow serves that purpose. Do we pray for peace? Absolutely. But we must also trust that God, not flawed humans, is the One in ultimate control.
This is no time for Spiritual pride or arrogance in being among the chosen. I see the point He is making to me and confess the pride that can hinder my prayers for the lost, even and especially those in the Middle East. While I can read and know what prophecy foretells, God's Divine purpose is the point beyond the prophecy.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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