Tuesday, August
15, 2017
Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those
who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love
before.” And, “Then, at the place where
they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of
the living God.’” And concerning Israel,
Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as
the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his
sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.” And Isaiah said the same thing in another
place: “If the Lord of
Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped
out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”
Romans 9:25-29(NLT)
In teaching
the Roman believers (who were non-Jewish) about God’s choice to include them in
His Kingdom, Paul quoted Hosea, who went so far as to name one of his kids Not My People. (Wouldn’t that be a hard answer when your
name is called at school?) This was God’s
way of showing everybody that man’s opinions only go so far.
Israel had
a conventional set of nationalistic wisdom which included an arrogant view that
JHWH’s plans only included Jews. Gentiles
might become Jews by
ritual and obedience…but unless you did it their way your soul was only more
fuel for the fires of Hell. To that God
said (to put it theologically) fooey!
And, to
boot, God then instructed everyone to look at the vastness of the Jewish
population; there were as many Jews as the grains of sand on a beach, but only
a remnant…just a small percentage would be saved.
So
what’s the point?
I’m glad
you asked. The point is for we, who are
not of the chosen nation Israel, late-arrivers in God’s plan, Gentiles,
grafted-into God’s vineyard, to not
get uppity! For the last two thousand years the church has
proclaimed the Kingdom of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ; we preach
His death and resurrection and coming again as God’s truth and way for all to
be saved.
The church began
as a Jewish sect (remember Peter, James and John were not born in Indiana), and
over time the rift between Synagogue and Sanctuary grew wider, each clinging to
the belief that they held the only way to God.
The
reminder here against uppity-ness
is that exclusivism is dangerous. Man
may propose, but it is God who disposes[2]! We may think we have it all right, but the
final disposition of what is actually right
rests in the hands of Almighty God.
The Jews
imagined it was God and them against the world.
The church can
fall into that same trap, thinking it is the elect, the sanctified ones of God
against all those evil people.
In reality God
is for the world! Hear it from the words of Peter the
fisherman, one who knew Christ on a closer personal level than most:
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 2 Peter 3:9b(NLT)
While most
of the world scurries around figuring out their theology and their place in the
kingdom, on the left or right of God’s throne, and how many others besides them
might be in the remnant, God is probably shaking his head at why we can’t love
each other enough to concentrate on sharing the Father’s desire for everyone to come home.
For You Today
It would be
a good thing to spend this day ignoring the differences between us and the
people we meet today…and concentrate on the eternal soul of each person you
encounter. See that person as one for
whom Christ died!
Speak
accordingly, love unselfishly, and hear God call that person, my people!
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