Jewish People are Scattered The history of the Jewish people from the time they entered the Land of Promise to this very day is one of survival and persistence. During the history of the settlement of the promised land the Jewish people display the very human traits of obedience to God and obedience to a corrupt society.
After the death of Kings David and Solomon the Jewish people have all but forgotten their covenant with God. Even though they have forgotten the covenant, God has not. He will use circumstances and human failing as tools to remind the Jewish nation of His place in their life and in the flow of history.
During the time of disobedience and religious corruption a prophet tells of the division of the Land of Promise. Ten tribes will form the Northern Kingdom, called Israel and the two remaining will become known as the Kingdom of Judah. It will not take long until the brothers of Jacob are at such severe odds with each other that hatred against brother is common.
God will have His way in the affairs of mankind and it is He who allows all of this to take place. Soon armies from the land of Arabia and Persia invade and destroy the Land of Promise. The Jewish people are led away as slaves, dispersed into lands far from the Land of the Covenant.
Obedience to God is more relevant than time so He allows the Jewish people to learn some very hard lessons. After years of slavery two men come to the forefront to bring a sense of hope to the dispersed Jews. Nehemiah and Ezra, at two different locations, receive permission from their captors to return to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah returns with permission and access to supplies to rebuild the wall around the holy city. Ezra receives permission and access to supplies to rebuild the city and temple. At the completion of the rebuilding projects a great religious awakening takes place in the lives of the Jewish people.
The Old Testament comes to close with prophets warning the people that they must stay dedicated to God or corrective actions from God will follow.
The New Testament finds the religious life of the Jewish people controlled by corrupt and greedy leadership. The common people suffer under the hand of the Romans and their puppet Jewish leaders. Around forty years after the death of Christ the Jewish Zealots rebel against Roman rule and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the Jewish population flees.
More than 1800 years later the United Nations divides Palestine and in 1948 the Jewish people once again find a homeland with their name attached to it.
Now as to the final thoughts on this topic. It is my view that peace will never come to the Middle East, until the hateful character of man comes under the control of the, God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and His Christ. God alone can change the character of man and cure the evil within the human heart.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
God Ordained Meeting
God Ordained Meeting- Donna and I like to take a few hours and travel through the small towns of Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana. Today was such a day. She had just finished up at her doctors appointment and the sun was shinning and the temperatures were in the mid sixties. I point the minivan in a southerly direction and soon we were south of a few familiar Ohio towns.
Following US127 we ended up in the quaint town of Bryan Ohio. I always keep an eye out for buildings with striking architecture and the city center building was exceptional. Red brick structures were the norm around here for more than a hundred and fifty years. The building was striking in its lines. The clock tower was simply awesome.
Driving past the city center Donna spotted her favorite building style as well. The sign on the front of the store advertised used clothing as part of a local churches ministry to the city. I drove right past it, which is what I usually do. However, this time I asked her if she would like me to turn the corner and come back. I didn't wait for the answer.
We were sitting in front of the second hand store and I was busy playing(working) on my small electronic magical invisible wave grabbing telephone, email machine, solitaire playing, search engine, fruit phone. About five minutes later, not much time in the world of second hand shops, Donna came out to the van with tears in her eyes.
That usually means she has just connected with someone just like her mom, or she was watching a little baby. Neither was true. She came out to tell me that a lady in the store lived in Zambia. Her and her husband are missionaries and just happened to stop in the store.
A moment later her husband came out and introduced himself to me. Steve is his name. He is in his mid seventies, tanned and gray. For the next hour we shared stories and the miracle unfolded. He knew many of the same people that we knew and worked with. He was friends with a Zambian man who was our neighbor for close to a year. He experienced many of the same situations. He had malaria, more times than I did. He survived a bite from a Black Mamba.
They are currently raising their funds for their work by visiting supporting churches throughout Northern Ohio and Southern Michigan. His wife is a nurse and her current ministry is with orphans and widows in the Copper belt region of Zambia.
Now what are the chances of all of this happening by accident? We have met many folks from Africa, it is a big place, not many at all from the Texas sized country of Zambia, and never anybody that knew so many of the people we knew and worked with. Certainly it was a God Ordained Meeting.
We will stay in touch, in the real near future in fact. God didn't bring us together just to chat.
Following US127 we ended up in the quaint town of Bryan Ohio. I always keep an eye out for buildings with striking architecture and the city center building was exceptional. Red brick structures were the norm around here for more than a hundred and fifty years. The building was striking in its lines. The clock tower was simply awesome.
Driving past the city center Donna spotted her favorite building style as well. The sign on the front of the store advertised used clothing as part of a local churches ministry to the city. I drove right past it, which is what I usually do. However, this time I asked her if she would like me to turn the corner and come back. I didn't wait for the answer.
We were sitting in front of the second hand store and I was busy playing(working) on my small electronic magical invisible wave grabbing telephone, email machine, solitaire playing, search engine, fruit phone. About five minutes later, not much time in the world of second hand shops, Donna came out to the van with tears in her eyes.
That usually means she has just connected with someone just like her mom, or she was watching a little baby. Neither was true. She came out to tell me that a lady in the store lived in Zambia. Her and her husband are missionaries and just happened to stop in the store.
A moment later her husband came out and introduced himself to me. Steve is his name. He is in his mid seventies, tanned and gray. For the next hour we shared stories and the miracle unfolded. He knew many of the same people that we knew and worked with. He was friends with a Zambian man who was our neighbor for close to a year. He experienced many of the same situations. He had malaria, more times than I did. He survived a bite from a Black Mamba.
They are currently raising their funds for their work by visiting supporting churches throughout Northern Ohio and Southern Michigan. His wife is a nurse and her current ministry is with orphans and widows in the Copper belt region of Zambia.
Now what are the chances of all of this happening by accident? We have met many folks from Africa, it is a big place, not many at all from the Texas sized country of Zambia, and never anybody that knew so many of the people we knew and worked with. Certainly it was a God Ordained Meeting.
We will stay in touch, in the real near future in fact. God didn't bring us together just to chat.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Peace in the Middle East/8
Joshua leads the Jewish people into their land of promise. After more than 600 years of waiting, slavery and struggle the People of God are standing at the edge of their inheritance. With the Ark of the Covenant in full view, the entire nation, the Children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob cross the Jordan River on dry ground.
To commemorate the Hand of God and to remind the Jewish people Joshua commands two memorial sites to be erected. The first site is on the freedom side of the river. A representative from each tribe was to carry a stone from the middle of the river over to the freedom side. There the twelve stones were stacked to form a memorial. The purpose, according to Joshua, was to be a reminder of the Hand of God in delivering the Children of Israel to their land of promise.
The second memorial was built by Joshua himself. The memorial was built in the middle of the Jordan River, right where the feet of the priests stood holding the Ark of the Covenant. This unseen memorial was to celebrate all of the miracles, the unseen and the seen, that God showered upon the Jewish Nation.
Settling in the new land was filled with struggles and battles. God promised Joshua that no army would be able to stand against him as long as the Jewish people stayed true to the, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. City after city fell to the leadership of Joshua. His obedience to God still stands as the Warrior Leader of newly liberated Jews.
To the Southeast Joshua faces a battle with a people that have hated the new nation since the days of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael. Four hundred years before the Jews found their freedom Isaac's son, Esau, left his father and made a deal with Ishmael.
The promised land is divided into tribal names and each son of Jacob is honored by the land designation. At this point in the history of the Jewish nation God has kept His promise to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It will be up to them to keep their part of the covenant, insuring peace and prosperity.
The children of Ishmael and Esau have filled the land of the Arabian Peninsula. Their animosity and hatred towards the Jews is passed down through oral tradition. Generation after generation is taught of the life of Hagar and Ishmael and how Sarah mistreated them.
In the same way, the oral tradition of the Jewish people kept alive their miraculous story. Another aspect of Jewish tradition was the care kept in their worship. The Pentateuch, first five books of Moses, were revered as God inspired. Later writers would record, as did Joshua, the life of the Jewish nation.
The Jews had great times of enjoying the blessings of God. They also had horrific times of abandoning their God and becoming involved in the pagan practices of the people surrounding them. Their stubbornness and rebellion against God led to the Promised Land becoming the Partitioned Land.
Armies from the east conquered the land and took the Jewish people away as slaves. The voice of the prophets would call them to repentance and they would call out for forgiveness and restoration. God kept His covenant and brought them back to their land. The circle of rebellion against God and repentance towards God became common in the Jewish nation.
To commemorate the Hand of God and to remind the Jewish people Joshua commands two memorial sites to be erected. The first site is on the freedom side of the river. A representative from each tribe was to carry a stone from the middle of the river over to the freedom side. There the twelve stones were stacked to form a memorial. The purpose, according to Joshua, was to be a reminder of the Hand of God in delivering the Children of Israel to their land of promise.
The second memorial was built by Joshua himself. The memorial was built in the middle of the Jordan River, right where the feet of the priests stood holding the Ark of the Covenant. This unseen memorial was to celebrate all of the miracles, the unseen and the seen, that God showered upon the Jewish Nation.
Settling in the new land was filled with struggles and battles. God promised Joshua that no army would be able to stand against him as long as the Jewish people stayed true to the, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. City after city fell to the leadership of Joshua. His obedience to God still stands as the Warrior Leader of newly liberated Jews.
To the Southeast Joshua faces a battle with a people that have hated the new nation since the days of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael. Four hundred years before the Jews found their freedom Isaac's son, Esau, left his father and made a deal with Ishmael.
The promised land is divided into tribal names and each son of Jacob is honored by the land designation. At this point in the history of the Jewish nation God has kept His promise to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It will be up to them to keep their part of the covenant, insuring peace and prosperity.
The children of Ishmael and Esau have filled the land of the Arabian Peninsula. Their animosity and hatred towards the Jews is passed down through oral tradition. Generation after generation is taught of the life of Hagar and Ishmael and how Sarah mistreated them.
In the same way, the oral tradition of the Jewish people kept alive their miraculous story. Another aspect of Jewish tradition was the care kept in their worship. The Pentateuch, first five books of Moses, were revered as God inspired. Later writers would record, as did Joshua, the life of the Jewish nation.
The Jews had great times of enjoying the blessings of God. They also had horrific times of abandoning their God and becoming involved in the pagan practices of the people surrounding them. Their stubbornness and rebellion against God led to the Promised Land becoming the Partitioned Land.
Armies from the east conquered the land and took the Jewish people away as slaves. The voice of the prophets would call them to repentance and they would call out for forgiveness and restoration. God kept His covenant and brought them back to their land. The circle of rebellion against God and repentance towards God became common in the Jewish nation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)