BIBLE REFERENCE:
“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” Jude 1:5.
ENCOURAGING WORD:
Today, as I was considering what would be a good topic to write about in light of the days in which we live, I just sat and thought for a moment. Nothing was really coming to mind so, as I often do, I reached for my Bible and decided to page through it and see what the Holy Spirit would put on my heart to share. The first paragraph that I read was the verse above in the book of Jude where he mentioned the exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt. It all of a sudden hit me like a brick upside the head how we can take this same verse above and apply it to our world today.
We read back in Genesis starting in chapter 37, where we come across the story about Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel how through a series of events ended up being the second in command in Egypt. Without getting into a lot of detail, the way it turns out, Jacob, Rachel and their sons entered into Egypt as a family and after four hundred years or so of hard bondage they came out of Egypt as a Nation. It is a very good teaching on how Israel became a nation through various trials and tribulation of their son, Joseph. I’ve heard it said many times that Joseph is a type of Jesus and the more that I read and learn about Joseph it is becoming very clear why they teach that. Joseph is responsible through the trials that God allowed him to go through for there being a nation of Israel.
Then we move forward about four hundred years when we are introduced to a man named Moses. After suffering for four hundred years of hard bondage, God called a man named Moses to be His instrument in which He would use to finally set free His chosen people, the Jews. It was prophesied to the Hebrews that one day a delivered would be sent and sure enough, that day came. After a series of ten plagues that fell upon Egypt, the Pharaoh of Egypt gave into Moses and let his people go. Now is where it gets very interesting to me and how it plays right into what is happening in our world today. Through forty years of wondering through the dessert, the Jews grew more and more impatient and started murmuring against Moses and the God of Israel. They were constantly rebelling against God and complaining about everything from the food that they ate to everything else they could complain about. Eventually they came to My Sinai where Moses notices a strange fire atop the mountain. Moses then journeyed up to the top of Mt. Sinai where he eventually received the Ten Commandments written by the hand of God Himself. Moses stayed there several days and then finally came down the Mountain with two tablets written on stone by the finger of God. But during that time he was on My Sanai, once again, the Hebrews became rebellious and began to build a golden calf as we read in Exodus 32:1; “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Because of their constant murmuring and complaining against God, the generation that came out of Egypt all perished that were over twenty years old. We read these couple of verse where this is confirmed, Number 14:30; “Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” Number 14:29; “The carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.” Even Moses could not enter the Promised Land as we read in Deuteronomy 1:37; “The LORD was also angry with me (Moses) for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there.” The reason that Moses could not enter the promise land is another story I’ll save for a later date. Even though God saved all the Jews from hard bondage, it was only Caleb and Joshua who believed the Word of God and stayed the course. All but two of the original Hebrews did not make it into the Promised Land because of their disbelief. Even though God saved them all, only two took the word of God seriously and were saved.
Most of you may see where I am going with this. Let us go back about two thousand years to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah. Just like God used Joseph to bring about the nation of Israel, God brought Jesus into the world to save sinners from eternal damnation which led to, the ushering in of the church. Before this event, if you were not a Jew, there was no way for salvation, but because of the Jews rejection of their Messiah, we (The Gentiles) have been grafted in as heirs to the Kingdom of God. We read this in Ephesians 2:11-13; “Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.” “The church was born on Pentecost where we read in Acts 2:1-4; “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” Now, before the church began, we read through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John where we read about the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They all ended with the final days of Jesus’s time here on earth where He was crucified for a crime that He did not commit. When Jesus died on the cross, we were told that He died for the sins of the world. 1 John 2:2“He (Jesus) is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” One might think that by reading this verse all would be saved but stop for a moment and reflect on the nation of Israel. Sure, Jesus did die for the sins of the world, but just like the Hebrews that rejected Gods Word, the same will happen to those that reject the truth of the Gospel. They will not enter into the Promised Land. In fact, the Bible tells us this in Matthew 7:14; “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Only two people were saved through the forty years of wondering through the dessert, I would say that was a few. The Hebrews were so arrogant to think that they were going to enter into the Promised Land that they forgot to stay the course set up by their God which was to serve Him and Him only. They had fallen away from the one true God that saved them from four hundred years of bondage. How soon we forget…right? Now, before you go and criticize the Hebrews for being so ignorant, think of all the people that are now rejecting Jesus Christ. Our nation was founded on the principles of Biblical truth. We started out to be a Christian Nation, and slowly but surely, we have fallen away from the foundation upon which we were born. "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.", Remember these words? When we were back in school, the first thing that was said every morning was the pledge of Allegiance. I have to believe that most of America has forgotten these very important words. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892. From what I see, there is very little allegiance to America by any of the younger generation that we call the millennials. For the most part, they are a lost generation, and they will usher in the last days of freedom and the American dream.
ACTION POINT:
As I reference in almost all my blogs, the most important thing that you can do today and every day if you haven’t already done so, is to submit your life to Jesus Christ or you will parish with the unbelievers into eternal condemnation. A lot of people want to blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, when in reality it is you and I that put Him on that cross. Jesus willingly went to the cross to pay for your sins and mine, but there is a condition that needs to be met on our end, it is called grace and it has to be received by the person with whom it is offered too which happens to be everybody as we read in this very well-known Bible verse, John 3:16; “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Without acceptance, your destiny will be the same as those Hebrews that had fallen away from their God. Since God judged His chosen people that harshly, do not expect anything different for us. We read these final two verse, one in John 12:48; where we read, “He who rejects Me (Jesus) and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” John 5:43; “I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” Think hard about this last message from Jesus, it is going to have huge consequences in the near future. “Written To the glory of God, Inspired by the Holy Spirit!”
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