"Free But Not Free"

"He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents." (Psalms 78:55) Not much to commentate over this verse, at least on it's own description; it pretty much tells how God drove out the inhabitants, divided the land to all the tribes, and then had Israel freely live off of the labor and riches of those who had been driven out. Pretty much cut and dry; wouldn't you say? Matthew Henry ends his thought over this verse by saying: "God could have turned the uninhabited uncultivated wilderness (which perhaps was nearly of the same extent as Canaan) into a fruitful soil, and have planted them there; but the land he designed for them was to be a type of heaven, and therefore must be the glory of all the lands; it must likewise be fought for, for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence." Said to be one of the most misunderstood Scriptures, Matthew 11:12 has Jesus saying, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." There is something to consider from this very misunderstood verse; first of which is the one who is speaking, Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." It is easy to believe that Jesus died for our sins; just the fact that He hung upon that cross and died, and the writings of the witnesses is enough to convince that average person; but to understand the cost and the sacrifice of all that was spent and all that was planned; never mind all that was plotted by the enemy to undo that very specific plan. The other thing to consider is the word "suffers" and how it actually may not speak of suffering, as if we were to suffer through some hardship; because it also could mean 'allow' as in, "heaven allows violence." There is another example of how this might look, which is Paul's description of what we call the rapture, which is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and is the words "caught up," which means taken by force. Combine that with the alternative meaning of the word "violent," which does not have to refer to someone out to hurt or kill, because it also could mean someone who being forceful or aggressive; basically, it means doing whatever needs to be done. I guess what it all comes down to is that we blessed beyond measure, because what God did for us was the most extreme and costly thing He could have done...
 "For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with it's commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit." (Ephesians 2:14-22) NLT