GOD TEACHES ISRAEL

TO ACCEPT


FAITHING/CHRIST





Like all life lessons, in which we repeatedly encounter the same situation, but of ever increasing intensity, until we finally recognize our fearful behavior and move out of the position of stress caused by our selfish actions, God, on His Grand scale, has been teaching the Jews, and for a while the rest of the Israelites, that their depen dence must be on Him, not their Self-works and/or Keeping of the Law.

Although faithing has always been God's objective for man, the record we have of God's dealings with man don't show His teaching to those before the flood. I'm sure that the Patriarchs were all faithers; even Adam. But we're not privy to the teaching of those folks, just an occcasional action that indicates their depending of God.

Our examples of what God wants from us in the way of trust begin, mainly, with Abraham. Although we know quite a bit about Noah, we aren't shown how he is taught to depend on God. We only see his obedient actions.

The following is an overview of Israelite and Jewish history, outlining the various steps in the lesson learning process that will eventually bring them into dependence on God. Oh, that the lessons learned by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had maintained down through the centuries. But alas, God has had to allow increasingly stressful consequences to those who persist in their dependence on themselves. To make His point, He has had to move all the way from temporary, personal stress, to loss of the personal spirit. Selah.

  1. ABRAHAM IS FIRST FAITHING EXAMPLE
    God dealing with individuals. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The time before the "nation." Each of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's lives can be seen as a struggle, increasing in intensity, that overcomes their attachment to self-dependence. They finally give up and depend on God. But they each go thru some very stressful lesson the last time. Abraham with Isaac, Isaac with Jacob and Esau, Jacob with the Angel. After these events in their lives, we don't see God "giving" them any more lessons. [I feel OK about excepting Jacob's stress over the "death" of Joseph. I feel he was paying for not acting on God's communication to Joseph through the dreams, but the dependence on God factor seems fairly vague and conjectural]

    When, in Egypt, the number of the Israelites had grown sufficient to be a nation, They should have gone back to claim their the Promised land. When it was apparent that they were settled in their comfortable situation, God raised Pharaoh, and the Israelites had to suffer the loss of personal freedom.

    Intensity level: Individual stress

  2. FAITHING IN THE EXODUS
    God starts to show how groups are to act. Community Faithing. Living by God's way. God's initial miracles don't sink in. The Israelites fail at Kadesh, He gives them a forty-year second chance.

    Intensity level: Physical harm, sometimes death. The Exodus, like the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is a microcosm of lesson-learning by God. The Israelites get increasingly more stressful challenges, until God finally has to kill off over a million in order to gain the trust required by those alive to carry out the takeover of Canaan.

  3. FAITHING THRU THE VEHICLE OF THE LAW
    The Israelites are given the chance solidify as a nation of faithers. The Law is given to provide a faithing structure for individuals as well as the group to learn dependence on God. Dependence, not just for survival needs. The millionaire won't die on $750,000 a year after tithing twenty-five percent, but will be dependent on God for His promise to provide in Malachi 3:10.

    The legalism that surrounds the Law was imposed by those who could most comfortably afford to "keep" it. The poor were always dependent on God, and so understood faithing more readily than the Pharisees.

    Intensity level: Excepting David and Solomon's reign, God sends centuries of enemies to vex the Israelites into faithing on Him not their performance or some other god.

  4. NEBUCHADNEZZOR DESTROYS THE TEMPLE
    Shows the Jews that all the Law keeping didn't help. The faith required to "sabbath" the land every 7 years was not exercised. Remeber that this was not a high government problem only, the individual farmers were the "hands on" lawbreakers. Of course, apostacy was also involved.

    Intensity level: A new element of stress is added to the previous three. They lose their land. God destroys their highest symbol of the Law and takes the group into captivity. The land would not be theirs for another 2520 years.

  5. ROMANS DESTROY THE TEMPLE
    God starts over. Helps the Jews rebuild the temple in preparation for His most prophsied attempt to present faithing to ALL the Israelites first, and then the world. The Israelites accept Jesus as their model of faithing, while the Jews stick to their Law once again.

    Intensity level: God levels the temple again, but unlike the previous destruction and captivity, God causes the wide dispersion, and complete dissoution of the Jews as a national entity. This in addition to the first four types of stress.

  6. OCCUPATION OF JERUSALEM
    God provides a Christian Protectorate for the dispersed groups of Jews. The Jews, still not recognizing the work of God through Christianity, continue in their set ways of Lawkeeping and Messiah-waiting. This attitude is only reinforced when, as God's 2520 years punishment of the Jews ends, the modern state of Israel is formed in l948.

    Intensity level: On going enmity from the world. Seemingly low, but 2520 years worth.(This section is a bit weak for a lesson, except that it should have been obvious to the Jews that they could NEVER expect to get the Holy Land back by themselves. This should have helped them learn true faith.) At worst, this "lesson" merges a bit with number seven.

  7. ANTI-CHRIST TAKES/DESTROYS THE TRIBULATION TEMPLE
    By MANY signs, God opens the door once more to the Jews. Daniel and Enoch become fact. The temple is over run, and still fully one third of the Jews remain in a postion that results in their death; perhaps like the gullible Jews in Nazi Germany. Two thirds escape to Moab, etc. And this guy AC has the world scared spitless because of the Power he wields. All the might of the Lost Tribes nations [US, Brit, NW Eur] and Israel isn't enough to finally discourage the Anti-Christ. He's ready for the Big One. The guy's got supernatural powers and knows it.

    Intensity level: This is most of all, so far. Open supernatural power is brought into the picture. More than personal, national (or covert evil) powers are used. This is an open display :"as seen on TV."

  8. JEWS SEE AND ACCEPT JESUS
    Their last chance. With all of the most important people on earth at or focused on Megiddo, and the Jews within eyewitness range of the sky over the valley, Christ and His saints will appear as the brightness of the sun. That living two thirds of the Jews will not be able (or willing) to deny Jesus. But who knows, there may be some who even then can't believe or won't accept.

    Intenstiy level: Most extreme. Loss of one's spirit. The spiritual humiliation of seeing your life as a lie. Seeing God-in-Flesh coming down out of the sky must be the most humiliating thing that one can experience; even more than death. "And we thought the AC was powerful!"

We'll stop here. But this is not the last lesson that man will have to learn. I've deliberately left out the final attempt of Satan at the end of the Millenium. Meditation on that lesson might be interesting for you.




STRESS INTENSITY OVERVIEW:




The lesson, of course, in all of this is, "Recognize your stress as a result of your own disbelieving, selfish actions, and learn to make your subsequent decions based on trust in God. The earlier we bring focus in from the outside world to search for our contribution to the stress we feel, the sooner we will be able to get on to the next stressful situation.

This may sound like the ever-increasingly intense challenges to our faith that God brings us. It is NOT. A brief look at the two situations will show that challenges to faith do not include distress. Let us not confuse even severe apprehension of the unknown with the stress we feel when we forget to put oil in the car and the engine melts. Faith challenges from God don't make us want to kick the windshield out.

How about it? You wanna get out of that chair and look for some faith object, or let God allow some stressful situations to help you along? As long as you're pointed in His direction, He's going to insist that you sluff of that self-oriented/dependent behavior. The more you help, the less stress you'll experience.

Faithe.




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