Yesterday,
a wonderful Facebook friend from Africa asked me an intriguing question. Following is a paraphrased version: “Why is
it that Almighty God continues to call Himself, “the God of Israel,” long after His people have purposefully
and repeatedly fallen into sin?” It’s a
great question, and it begs scripture elucidation. My response to went something
like this:
This
question emerges often as we consider the actions/sins
of people and how God chooses to handle
them. Nevertheless, The Word declares that God’s mercy endures forever. Prayerfully consider the following
scriptures:
O
give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.
O
give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.
In other words, the mercy of God is far beyond mortal
comprehension. We, as humans, have the
tendency to judge situations and people from outer
appearances, which is radically different from God’s perspective, who always
judges us by our hearts, i.e. not
only by our actions, but by our motives
and by our intentions.
Consider Jacob. His given name
means “supplanter” or “trickster.” One
would think (logically) that God would have ultimately rejected such a person,
especially when it became obvious that his given name was definitely
descriptive of his character. Bottom-line:
Jacob manipulated his brother, Esau, and stole his birthright and
blessing. In order to do so, he had to
trick (deceive) his father, Isaac.
However, in later years God
testifies in an utterly surprising and positive way concerning Jacob. God declares that He loves Jacob…and He
hates Esau. The literal
meaning of that word, “hate” is to
love less, not hatred in
the sense of loathing or despising someone.
Jacob was divinely loved…in spite of himself. Check out the following scriptures to confirm
this.
Malachi 1:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2 I have loved you,
saith the Lord. Yet ye say,
Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,
3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Romans 9:13-15
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion.
I
find it fascinating that GOD refers to His chosen people, Israel, not as the “House of Abraham”…but as the “House of Jacob.” [See: Exodus 19:3 –
Psalm 114:1 – Isaiah 2:5-6 – Isaiah 10:20 – Isaiah 14:1 – Isaiah 29:22 – Isaiah
46:3 – Isaiah 48:1 – Isaiah 58:1 – Jeremiah 2:4 – Jeremiah 5:20 – Ezekiel 20:5
– Amos 3:13 – Amos 9:8 – Obadiah 1:17-18 – Micah 2:7 – Micah 3:9] This is extremely significant. God’s action, i.e. His ‘grace-name’ for His people, speaks of
the love and mercy of God…and the fact that God always gains greater glory by
using broken and unworthy vessels
to pursue His righteousness and to build His Kingdom. Incredibly enough, when God sent Gabriel to
inform Mary that she would be the chosen vessel who would bring forth Jesus,
God’s Son, into this world, the angel proclaimed to her that “he” [Jesus]
“shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever!”
Luke
1:30-33
30 And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of
his kingdom there shall be no end.
Romans
11:29 informs us that “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
In other words, God does not
change His mind about us…even when we change our minds about Him! This truth is confirmed in the book of
Jeremiah. In fact, one of the principle
tasks of the pastor (in the context of the scripture below) is to “feed,” not only those who are saved, but
those who are backslidden, “with knowledge and understanding.”
Jeremiah
3:14-15
14 Turn,
O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a
city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you pastors
according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding.
After
all is said and done, we must remember this.
Heaven’s best is purposefully
poured out into vessels of clay. But there is a definite method to what God is
doing. GOD does it this way in order to
bring ultimate glory to HIMSELF! For
whenever redeemed people do anything
that is good or righteous, we have no one to thank or applaud but GOD.
…we
have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of
God, and not of us.
In
Paul’s wise words to Timothy, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” (II
Timothy 2:13) Whenever I consider the
course of our lives…our frailties…our faults…our foibles…our fiascoes…our
failures…we can only conclude that “It is
of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions
fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.”
(Lamentations 3:22-23)
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