Christian Living
All Christians know that Jesus came the first time about 2000 years ago, and that He is coming back again. We realize that Heaven’s plan A was for sin to never enter the world. But once it did, what was Jehovah’s plan B? Was this really the way God wanted things to be, even in a sinful world? The Bible doesn’t say too much about the world before the flood, so we have to start looking after the flood. We have been told a lot about how much sin has separated us from God - maybe we haven’t seen how much He wants to be close to us. The Most High used to hang out quite a bit with Abraham, talking to him and even dropping by for a visit one day. God sent dreams to Jacob to communicate, and went out for a friendly little wrestling match with him one evening. After putting on a display of His awesome power for Pharaoh, Yahweh came down and journeyed with His people as they went towards the land He had promised them. They made an agreement and accepted Him as their King. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up on Mt. Sinai and they “saw the God of Israel” (Ex 24:9 NKJV). God wanted them to build a sanctuary, so that He could “dwell among them.” God and Moses got along so well that “the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” at Moses tent. (Ex 33:11, 7( NKJV). The Almighty continued to direct their every move and to provide for all their needs. He was there 24/7 in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night.
Now what if Israel had possessed a heart to follow and obey the LORD? What if instead of doubting and complaining, they had trusted and listened to Yahweh? They would have quickly entered the Promised Land and driven out the evil nations with their wicked ways. What if there had been a number of faithful leaders to follow Joshua, how many wonderful things could the LORD have done? We see in King David’s day, with just 1 ½ generations of faithful Kings, Israel went from being regularly beat up by the Philistines when David was young, to ruling from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River in the middle of Solomon’s reign. What if Solomon had stayed faithful to God, and his son Rehoboam had been a godly king? Would Rehoboam of been like Alexander and conquered the whole Middle East? Solomon and Rehoboam could have destroyed idolatry and introduced the just and fair laws of Jehovah to the entire region...Just think what history might have been like if humans had been faithful. Joel 3, Ezekiel 38 and Zechariah 12-14 paint a picture of the nations of the world ganging up on Israel and of God defeating them all.
God never intended for the evil people of the world to control its history and destiny to the degree that they have. If the good people had ever been humble and obedient enough to really be HIS people, God would have been very glad to defeat the wicked and bring goodness throughout the earth. “Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.” Daniel 7:27 NKJV “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Ps. 37:11 NKJV. The problem was that over and over, the “believers” rejected Jehovah’s leadership and refused to follow His plans. In Numbers 14:1-5, Israel refused to go up into the Promised Land, saying God had brought them out into the wilderness to die (this was the 10th time they made that silly accusation when in a difficult situation). In 1 Samuel 8:4-5, the Children of Israel asked for a king, rejecting Jehovah’s leadership of the nation. After being made the wisest man on earth, Solomon turned away from God - so God divided the nation into 2 parts, the 10 northern tribes, called Israel, and the 2 southern tribes, called Judah. The 10 northern tribes never had a king who was faithful to God, and they were taken captive by the Assyrians. Most of them integrated into the heathen nations, but a few returned to Palestine and became the Samaritans. Judah kept rejecting the prophets Yahweh sent, so they were taken captive to Babylon for 70 years. When 10% of them returned in Cyrus’ day, the nation became legalistic and proud. When God Himself came to Israel, He was rejected and killed.
Some people ask why God permits/allows such evil on the earth - I suggest in the judgment God may ask why the “righteous,” by their disobedience, tied His hands and allowed such wickedness to flourish on earth. The Eternal One has showed a willingness over and over to defeat evil when it comes against His faithful believers. But too often the “believers” compromise and imitate the world.
I believe that God wanted to do more than guide Israel by the cloud in daytime and the pillar of fire at night. If His believers were faithful, His Presence would have always remained over the sanctuary, and He would have directed all His peoples affairs, just as He did whenever they asked. God would have given them wisdom in education, government, spiritual matters, art and in self-defense. They would have prospered and spread throughout the whole earth, eventually conquering the world when God defeated the enemies arrayed against them. If not in the Old Testament, then if believers had been obedient to the New Testament, God would have changed the history of the world for the better. If only the church had allowed the Holy Spirit to be the leader of the church, rather than humans - humans in the guise of elders, bishops and popes who supplanted God’s position in leading the church. Even today, humans think they are wise enough to guide the work of heaven, and God leaves them to stumble in their own foolishness. Thus we are here 2000 years later with a form of godliness, and most denominations “play church,” with the blind (humans) leading the blind. It is true that Jehovah wants to live in the heart of each believer. But God also wants a group of followers, a body of faithful that will allow Him to show to the world the glory of true goodness from heaven. He wants to display the wonder of pure, holy love - and make honest humans long to receive it for themselves. How much the Most High desires to show the world the awesome goodness of unselfish wholiness - but He can’t get His friends to cooperate. So God dreams of what might have been, if only believers had really trusted Him enough to obey, for more than just 1 generation 2000 years ago...
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