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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Back to the Israelites....

In considering the GREAT deal of time spent preparing for and then executing all the many sacrifices and rituals and ceremonies that God required of His people, we could easily begin to feel like "it's too much!" why would anyone want to put themselves through all that? And then have everyone around them hate them! And why? Have you ever asked yourself WHY Gods chosen people have been so hated down through the centuries, even into today? Have you ever really considered the reasons?
At this point, you might think I have an answer, but I don't. In fact, quite the opposite. I find the more I learn about God, His character, the principles in the Bible, instead of answers, I have more questions!

This is what I've come to as a result of spending time considering the "plight" of the Israelites:
1. They are a GREAT example of the fraility of the flesh that plagues every single one of us without exception
2. Our need of reminders about how desperately we NEED to stay in contact with God our Heavenly Father constantly is, well, constant!
3. The extraordinary LOVE and PATIENCE God the Father has toward us is way, way, way beyond our comprehension!

Even with all the ritual designed to keep them always in mind of WHO they serve, the Israelites managed to forget or at least put it aside, more often than not. They followed after other gods who were not gods at all, but manmade images with no power of any kind except to cause them to sin against the One True God.

Aren't we just exactly the same? We think we've designed a ritual for walking a Christian walk, only to discover just how vulnerable, and needy, and fallible we really are. So whats the answer? Saul, whom God changed to the Apostle Paul gave the only possible answer a very long time ago, and it hasn't changed at all:
GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More on that later...

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